Mobile telephone and radio communication device cooperatively processing incoming call

ABSTRACT

When there is an incoming call to a mobile telephone, it sends an incoming call notification signal to a watch-shaped information processing device. When the watch-shaped information processing device receives the incoming call notification signal, it notifies its user of the incoming call. The watch-shaped information processing device can also sends user&#39;s instructions to the mobile telephone. The instructions cause the mobile telephone to conduct processing for incoming call such as processing for asking the caller to wait, or asking the caller to leave a message.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a mobile telephone and to a radiocommunication device that can carry out local and bidirectional radiocommunication with the mobile telephone.

Recently, small and lightweight mobile telephones are widely used, andthey are often put in bags when carried by their users. In that case,users have to take the mobile telephone from the bag to answer thetelephone. This takes time, and sometimes the calling can end beforeanswering.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to allow users of mobiletelephones to quickly deal with an incoming call. In order to achievethis objection, the present invention provides a radio communicationdevice and a mobile telephone that, by conducting radio communicationwith each other, cooperatively process the incoming call.

The present invention provides a radio communication device comprising:a transmitter-receiver unit that carries out local and bidirectionalcommunication with a mobile telephone; an incoming call notificationunit that, when the radio communication device receives from the mobiletelephone an incoming call notification signal that indicates that thereis an incoming call to the mobile telephone, carries out a notification;and a control unit that, by using the transmitter-receiver unit, sendsan instruction signal to the mobile telephone to make the mobiletelephone respond to the caller by using voice.

By this invention, when there is an incoming call, a notification ismade by the radio communication device. Therefore, the user of the radiocommunication device can notice the incoming call even when the deviceis in the user's bag. The radio communication device also sends to themobile telephone to make the mobile telephone send an instruction signalto make the mobile telephone respond to the caller by using voice, sothe user does not need to operate the mobile telephone to answer theincoming call.

The radio communication device may have a watch-shape that fits to itsuser's arm.

The local and bidirectional communication may be a bluetoothcommunication.

The incoming call signal may include an identification signal foridentifying radio communication device.

The incoming call signal may also include a telephone number or a mobiletelephone identification information.

The incoming call signal may include a caller identification signal.

As an incoming call notification unit, an incoming call notificationvibration unit may be possible. In this case, when the incoming callnotification signal specifies to use a vibration to conduct an incomingcall notification, the incoming call notification vibration unit is usedto conduct an incoming call notification.

The radio communication device may be equipped with a time display unitfor displaying time.

The control unit may establish synchronization of transmission-receivingoperation by making intermittently communication with the mobiletelephone by using the transmitter-receiver unit.

The radio communication device may be equipped with a signal strengthindicator that tells signal strength of received signal from the mobiletelephone.

In one preferred aspect of the present invention, the radiocommunication device further has an external input unit and the controlunit, in response to an operation to the external input unit, sends aninstruction signal to the mobile telephone to make the mobile telephoneconduct operations for the incoming call.

In another preferred aspect of the present invention, the radiocommunication device further has an external input unit and the controlunit, when a prescribed time period has passed without any operation tothe external input terminal after the notification of the incoming callis carried out, sends an instruction signal to the mobile telephone themobile telephone to make the mobile telephone conduct operations for theincoming call.

In another preferred aspect of the present invention, the control unitof the radio communication device, when an incoming call auto-responsemode is preset to the radio communication device and the radiocommunication device receives the incoming call notification signal,sends an instruction signal to the mobile telephone to make the mobiletelephone conduct operations for the incoming call.

In yet another preferred aspect of the present invention, the radiocommunication device further has a display. And the control unit, whenthere is a telephone number, a mobile telephone identificationinformation, or a caller identification signal of the mobile telephonein the incoming call notification signal received by the mobiletelephone, displays them on the display.

In this case, the control unit, by using the transmitter-receiver unit,may send to the mobile telephone, as the instruction signal, a signalthat instructs the mobile telephone to send to the caller a message thatasks the caller to wait for a moment.

Or the control unit, by using the transmitter-receiver unit, may send tothe mobile telephone, as the instruction signal, a signal that instructsthe mobile telephone to send to the caller a message that asks thecaller to leave a message.

Or the control unit may, by using the transmitter-receiver unit, sendsto the mobile telephone, as the instruction signal, a signal thatinstructs the mobile telephone to make a communication link between theradio communication device and the caller's communication device via themobile telephone.

The present invention also provide a radio communication device, whichis equipped with: a transmitter-receiver unit that carries out local andbidirectional communication with a mobile telephone; an incoming callnotification unit that carries out a notification when the radiocommunication device receives from the mobile telephone an incoming callnotification signal that indicates that there is an incoming call to themobile telephone; and a control unit that sends, by using thetransmitter-receiver unit, to the mobile telephone a message to be sentto a caller's communication device from the mobile.

The present invention also provide a radio communication device, whichis equipped with: a transmitter-receiver unit that carries out local andbidirectional communication with a mobile telephone; an incoming callnotification unit that carries out a notification when the radiocommunication device receives from the mobile telephone an incoming callnotification signal that indicates that there is an incoming call to themobile telephone; and a control unit that sends, by using thetransmitter-receiver unit, to the mobile telephone a message to be sentto a caller's communication device from the mobile telephone and aninstruction signal that instruct the mobile telephone to conductoperations for the incoming call.

In this case, the radio communication device may further include astorage unit that stores a message to be sent to a caller'scommunication device, and the control unit may, during the informationexchange, sends the stored message to the mobile telephone.

Also, the radio communication device may further include an input unitthat receives the message to be sent to a caller's communication device,and then the control unit may store in the storage unit the message thatis input by using the input unit.

The input unit may be a microphone, and the message to be sent to acaller's communication device may be input by using this microphone.

The message may be a message that tells the caller to wait for a moment,or may be a message that tells the caller to leave a message.

The radio communication device may be further equipped with a storageunit that, after sending the message when a caller-sent information isreceived through the mobile telephone, stores the caller-sentinformation.

The caller-sent information may be a message the caller sends.

The radio communication device may be further equipped with an outputunit that outputs the caller-sent information that is stored in thestorage unit.

The output unit may be a voice output unit that outputs voice afterreading the caller's message from the storage unit.

The outputting of voice may be carried out when a certain operation ismade on the radio communication device.

The radio communication device may be further equipped with an externalinput unit and a display unit. The storage unit of the radiocommunication device may store messages and their information receivedvia the mobile telephone. The control unit of the radio communicationdevice, in response to operation to the external input unit, displaysinformation of the messages. Then again, in response to operation to theexternal input unit to specify a message, the control unit of the radiocommunication device reads the specified message from the storage unitto output to the display unit.

In a preferred aspect, the control unit, after sending to the mobiletelephone the message to be sent to the caller, as the instructionsignal, sends to the mobile telephone a record instruction thatinstructs the mobile telephone to record information sent from thecaller's communication device in response to the message to be sent tothe caller.

In another aspect of the present invention, the control unit, aftersending to the mobile telephone the message to be sent to the caller, asthe instruction signal, sends to the mobile telephone a change orderthat instructs the mobile telephone to let another device on a networkas a substitute of the mobile telephone carry out a communication withthe communication device of the caller.

In this case, message to be sent to the caller is for example a messagethat asks the caller to leave a message. The change order is aninstruction that lets an external message storage device receive andstore message sent from the caller.

In yet another preferable aspect of the present invention, the radiocommunication device is further equipped with an operating modesynchronization unit that conducts intermittently communication with themobile telephone and, when the operating mode of the mobile telephoneshifts, shifts the operating mode of the radio communication device tothe operating mode of the mobile telephone.

The present invention also provides a radio communication device thathas a transmitter-receiver unit that carries out local and bidirectionalcommunication with a mobile telephone; an incoming call notificationunit that, when the radio communication device receives from the mobiletelephone an incoming call notification signal that indicates that thereis an incoming call to the mobile telephone, carries out a notification;and a control unit that, by using the transmitter-receiver unit, sends,in response to the incoming call, a change order that instructs themobile telephone to let another device on a network as a substitute ofthe mobile telephone carry out a communication with the communicationdevice of the caller.

The change order in this case may be a signal that lets another serveron a network receive and store a message that is sent from the caller.

The present invention provide a mobile telephone that has atransmitter-receiver unit that carries out local and bidirectionalcommunication with a radio communication device; and a control unitthat, after receiving an incoming call from a network, sends an incomingcall notification signal to the radio communication device; and, basedon instruction signal received from the radio communication device bythe transmitter-receiver unit, responds to the caller by using voice.

The incoming call notification signal may include a telephone number ofthe mobile telephone or a mobile telephone identification informationthat corresponds to the telephone number, or may include a caller'sidentification number.

The control unit may establish a synchronization with a radiocommunication device by making an intermittently communication with atransmitter-receiver unit.

In a preferable aspect of the present invention, an incoming callnotification unit is provided. And the control unit, when there is anincoming call to the mobile telephone, sends the incoming callnotification signal in a case when there is a communication link betweenthe mobile telephone and the radio communication device and carries outnotification by using the incoming call notification unit in a case whenthere is a communication link between the mobile telephone and the radiocommunication device.

Also, during the processing for the incoming call, the control unitsends a connection request to a network, makes a communication linkbetween the mobile telephone and the caller's communication device, andsends to the caller's communication device a message for the caller viathe communication link.

The control unit may, during the processing for the incoming call, sendsto the radio communication device, by the transmitter-receiver unit,information about the caller sent in response to the message to be sentto the caller.

In another aspect of the present invention, a mobile telephone furtherhas a storage unit. And the control unit stores information sent by thecaller received via the network after sending message to be sent to thecaller.

In this case, when the control unit receives an instruction signal thatasks for receiving and storing a message, the control unit sends to acaller's communication device a message that asks for sending message,and stores the message in a storage unit.

The mobile telephone may also be equipped with a voice outputting unitthat outputs sound of the stored message in the storage unit.

The present invention provide a mobile telephone that has atransmitter-receiver unit that carries out local and bidirectionalcommunication with a radio communication device; and a control unitthat, after receiving an incoming call from a network, sends an incomingcall notification signal to the radio communication device, and forwardsa message that is received, device by the transmitter-receiver unit,from the radio communication device to the caller.

In a preferred aspect of the present invention, a mobile telephoneintermittently conducts a communication with the radio communicationdevice and, when the operating mode of the mobile telephone is shifted,sends to the radio communication device an operating mode shiftinginformation that tells the operating mode of the mobile telephone aftershifting.

In another aspect of the present invention, a mobile telephone has atransmitter-receiver unit that can carry out local and bidirectionalcommunication with a radio communication device; and a control unitthat, when the mobile telephone receives an incoming call, sends to theradio communication device an incoming call signal by using thetransmitter-receiver unit, and when the mobile telephone receives achange order by using the transmitter-receiver unit, request to thenetwork to change the connection from between the mobile telephone andthe caller's device to between a device on the network and the caller'sdevice.

A method provided by this invention for controlling a radiocommunication device with a transmitter-receiver unit that carries outlocal and bidirectional communication with a mobile telephone carrys outa notification when the transmitter-receiver unit receives an incomingcall notification signal that indicates that there is an incoming callto the mobile telephone; and sends, by using the transmitter-receiverunit, an instruction signal that makes the mobile telephone respond tothe caller by using voice in response to the incoming call.

Also a control method is provided for a radio communication device witha transmitter-receiver unit that is able to carry out local andbidirectional radio communication with a mobile telephone, the methodcomprising: notifying, when the transmitter-receiver unit receives anincoming call signal, of incoming signal by using a notification unit;and sending a message to be sent to the caller and an instruction signalthat makes the mobile telephone respond to the caller by using themessage.

Also there is provided a control method for answering an incoming callto a mobile telephone in a system with the mobile telephone that cancarry out local and bidirectional communication with a radiocommunication device, the method comprising: transmitting an incomingcall notification signal by the mobile telephone to the radiocommunication device when the mobile telephone receives an incomingcall; receiving the incoming call notification signal by the radiocommunication device; notifying the incoming call by the radiocommunication device; and sending an instruction signal that make themobile telephone respond to the caller by using voice.

Further, there is provided a control method for answering an incomingcall to a mobile telephone in a system with the mobile telephone thatcan carry out local and bidirectional communication with a radiocommunication device, the method comprising: transmitting an incomingcall notification signal by the mobile telephone to the radiocommunication device when the mobile telephone receives an incomingcall; receiving the incoming call notification signal by the radiocommunication device; notifying the incoming call by the radiocommunication device; and sending a message to be sent to the caller andan instruction signal that makes the mobile telephone respond to thecaller by using the message.

Yet another program is provided for controlling a radio communicationdevice that can carry out local and bidirectional radio communicationwith a mobile telephone, the program comprising: a program that makes acontrol unit of the radio communication device conduct controlling foran incoming call notification when a transmitter-receiver unit of theradio communication device receives an incoming call notification signalthat tells the mobile telephone receives an incoming call; and a programthat makes a control unit of the radio communication device send aninstruction signal that makes the mobile telephone respond to the callerby using voice.

A program is also provided for controlling a radio communication devicethat is able to carry out local and bidirectional radio communicationwith a mobile telephone, the program comprising: a program that makes acontrol unit of the radio communication device conduct controlling foran incoming call when a transmitter-receiver unit of the radiocommunication device receives an incoming call notification signal thatindicates that the mobile telephone receives an incoming call; and aprogram that makes the control unit of the radio communication devicesend an instruction signal that makes the mobile telephone send amessage to be sent to the caller and respond to the caller by using themessage.

A control method is also provided for a mobile telephone that can carryout local and bidirectional radio communication with a radiocommunication device, the method comprising: making a control unit ofthe mobile telephone conduct controlling to send to the radiocommunication device an incoming call notification signal when themobile telephone receives an incoming call; and making a control unit ofthe mobile telephone respond to the caller by using voice based on theinstruction signal received from the radio communication device.

A control method is also provided for a mobile telephone that can carryout local and bidirectional communication with a radio communicationdevice, the method comprising: making, when the mobile telephonereceives an incoming call, a control unit of the mobile telephone sendan incoming call notification signal to the radio communication device;and making, when the mobile telephone receives a message to be sent tothe caller and an instruction signal that instructs the mobile telephoneto forward the message, the control unit of the mobile telephone conductprocessing for forwarding the message.

There is also provided a program for controlling a mobile telephone thatcan carry out local and bidirectional radio communication with a radiocommunication device, the program comprising: a program that makes acontrol unit of the mobile telephone conduct controlling to send to theradio communication device an incoming call notification signal when themobile telephone receives an incoming call; and a program that makes acontrol unit of the mobile telephone respond to the caller by usingvoice based on the instruction signal received from the radiocommunication device.

Further a control program is provided for a mobile telephone that cancarry out local and bidirectional communication with a radiocommunication device, the program comprising: a program that, when themobile telephone receives an incoming call, makes a control unit of themobile telephone send an incoming call notification signal to the radiocommunication device; and a program that, when the mobile telephonereceives a message to be sent to the caller and an instruction signalthat instructs the mobile telephone to forward the message, makes thecontrol unit of the mobile telephone conduct processing for forwardingthe message.

A computer readable storage media is provided that stores a controlprogram for a mobile telephone which can carry out local andbidirectional radio communication with a radio communication device, thecontrol program comprising: a program that, when the mobile telephonereceives an incoming call, makes a control unit of the mobile telephoneconduct a processing for sending an incoming call notification signal;and a program that, based on an instruction signal sent by the radiocommunication device, makes the control unit of the mobile telephoneconduct processing for responding for the incoming call and forresponding to the caller by using voice.

Also there is provided a computer readable storage media that stores acontrol program for a mobile telephone which can carry out local andbidirectional radio communication with a radio communication device, thecontrol program comprising: a program that, when the mobile telephonereceives an incoming call, makes a control unit of the mobile telephoneconduct a processing for sending an incoming call notification signal;and a program that, when the mobile telephone receives from the radiocommunication device a message to be sent to the caller and aninstruction signal that instructs to forward the message, makes thecontrol unit of the mobile telephone conduct processing for respondingto the incoming call and for forwarding the message to be sent to thecaller.

A radio communication device is provided by the present invention thathas a transmitter-receiver unit that carries out local and bidirectionalcommunication with another radio communication device; a communicationstate judgement unit that measures and makes a judgement of state of thebidirectional communication; and a notification unit that tellsinformation about the state of the bidirectional communication measuredby the communication state judgement unit.

This radio communication device may further be equipped with anotification requirement judgement unit that, based on the judgement ofthe state done by the communication state judgement unit, makes ajudgement whether or not to tell a user of the radio communicationdevice information about the state of the bidirectional communication;wherein the notification unit, when the notification requirementjudgement unit judges the user should be notified, sends informationabout the state of communication.

By this configuration, because state of bidirectional communication withanother radio communication device is judged, and also judgement is madewhether or not to sends information about the bidirectionalcommunication, and when judgement is made to send information to theuser, the user gets information about communication state. Therefore,the user can know the state of the communication.

In this case, when the communication state judgement unit makes ajudgement that communication state has declined or communication isimpossible, the notification requirement judgement unit may judge thatit is necessary to notify the user of information.

Also, the notification unit can make various notification operations.And the radio communication device may be equipped with a notificationjudgement unit that makes a judgement about which notification operationshould be used, when the notification requirement judgement unit makes ajudgement to make a notification. Then the notification unit may conductnotification operation specified by the notification judgement unit.

There are a plurality of the above radio communication devices. Thecommunication state judgement unit judges state of bidirectional radiocommunication conducted between each of the radio communication device,and the notification requirement judgement unit, based on thecommunication state judged by the communication state judgement unit,judges whether or not to notify its user of information aboutcommunication with each radio communication device. The notificationjudgement unit may make a judgement to each bidirectional radiocommunication.

Also, the state of the communication may be divided into several steps.So the communication state judgement unit makes a judgement on whichsteps the communication is in. Based on this judgement, the notificationrequirement judgement unit makes a judgement whether or not to notifythe user of information about the radio communication. Then thenotification judgement unit makes a judgement about notificationoperation to be used.

Also the notification unit may be equipped with at least two of among adisplay that makes notification operation by displaying, an electronicsound unit that makes notification operation by outputting electronicsound, a light emitting unit that makes notification operation byblinking, and a vibrator that makes a notification operation byvibrating. Then the notification judgement unit makes a judgement whichunit to use for notification.

Or the notification unit may be equipped with at least one of among adisplay that makes notification operation by displaying, an electronicsound unit that makes notification operation by outputting electronicsound, a light emitting unit that makes notification operation byblinking, and a vibrator that makes a notification operation byvibrating. Then the notification judgement unit makes a judgement whichunit to use for notification.

Also, the mobile telephone may be equipped with a power-off detectionunit that detects if the radio communication device is powered off. Thenotification requirement judgement unit does not make notification aboutthe bidirectional communication with the radio communication device thatis powered off.

Also, notification unnecessary storage unit may be provided thatpre-stores identification information of the radio communication device,notification of which is not necessary. The notification requirementjudgement unit does not make notification about bidirectionalcommunication with the radio communication device whose identificationinformation is stored in the notification unnecessary storage unit.

The notification requirement judgement unit may make a judgement basedon condition of received signal that is received periodically from theradio communication device.

Also the notification requirement judgement unit may make a judgementbased on electric field strength of the received signal from the radiocommunication device

Also the radio communication device may be worn by its user, and mayhave a shape of watch and be worn on the wrist.

Further, the bidirectional radio communication may be radiocommunication that is based on a bluetooth technique.

The bidirectional radio communication may be based on the bluetoothtechnique and signal received periodically from the radio communicationdevice may be an inquiry signal that slave unit receives from the masterunit or an inquiry response signal that the master unit receives fromthe slave unit. These signals are defined by bluetooth specification.

A method of the present invention for controlling a radio communicationdevice is characterized by comprising the steps: a transmit-receive stepthat carrys out local and bidirectional radio communication with anotherradio communication device; a communication judgement step that judgesstate of the bidirectional radio communication with the othercommunication device; and a notification step that notifies the user ofinformation about the state of the bidirectional radio communication.

By this, state of bidirectional radio communication with a radiocommunication device is judged. Then, the user is notified of the stateof the communication. Hence, the user can know the state of thecommunication with the radio communication device.

In a preferred aspect of the present invention, this control method maycomprise a notification requirement judgement step that judges, based onthe judgement for state of the bidirectional radio communication,whether or not to notify a user of the radio communication device ofinformation about the state of the bidirectional radio communication.

In this case, when the communication state judgement step makes ajudgement that communication quality has declined or the communicationbecome impossible, the notification requirement judgement step may makesa judgement to notify.

The notification step may carries out various notification operations.When the notification requirement judgement step judges thatnotification is necessary, a notification judgement step judges whichnotification operation should be used. Then the notification stepcarries out the specified notification operation.

Also there may be several radio communication devices. In this case, thecommunication state judgement step may judge states of bidirectionalcommunications with these radio communication devices, the notificationrequirement judgement step judges whether or not to tell user ofinformation about the bidirectional communication for each radiocommunication device based on the judgement done by the communicationstate judgement step, and the notification judgement step may make ajudgement about what notification operation to use.

Communication state may be divided into several steps. The communicationstate judgement step judges which state the bidirectional radiocommunication is in with the radio communication device. Thenotification requirement judgement step judges whether or not to telluser of information about communication based on judgement done by thecommunication state judgement step. The notification judgement stepjudges which notification operation should be used based on thejudgement done by the notification requirement judgement step.

Also there may be a power-off detection step that detects when the radiocommunication device is powered off. The notification requirementjudgement step does not carry out notification operation for the radiocommunication device that is detected to be powered off.

There also may be a notification unnecessary storage step that storesidentification information of the radio communication device to whichnotification operation is not carried out. The notification requirementjudgement step may make a judgement that notification operation is notdone to the communication device whose identification information isstored in the notification unnecessary storage step.

The present invention further provides a control program comprising: aprogram that makes a control unit of a radio communication device carryout local and bidirectional radio communication between the radiocommunication device and a radio communication device; a program thatmakes the control unit of the radio communication device judge state ofbidirectional radio communication; and a program that makes the controlunit of the radio communication device notify the user of informationabout the state of the bidirectional radio communication.

The present invention also provides a computer readable storage mediumthat stores a control program, the control program comprising: a programthat makes a control unit of a radio communication device carry outlocal and bidirectional radio communication between the radiocommunication device and a radio communication device; a program thatmakes the control unit of the radio communication device judge state ofthe bidirectional radio communication; and a program that makes thecontrol unit of the radio communication device notify the user ofinformation about the state of the bidirectional radio communication.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a mobile telephone system of the firstembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a configuration of a watch-shaped information processingdevice of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 shows a configuration of an antenna unit, a switching circuit, areceiver circuit, and a transmitter circuit of the watch-shapedinformation processing device.

FIG. 4 is a sequence chart showing an operation of the first embodiment.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are the watch-shaped information processing devicesdisplaying information on their displays.

FIG. 7 shows a configuration of a mobile telephone of a mobile telephonesystem of the second embodiment.

FIG. 8 shows a configuration of a watch-shaped information processingdevice of the second embodiment.

FIG. 9 shows a configuration of a central control circuit of thewatch-shaped information processing device of the second embodiment.

FIG. 10 shows an address management table stored in a nonvolatile memoryof the watch-shaped information processing device of the secondembodiment.

FIG. 11 is a memory map showing content of the nonvolatile memory of thewatch-shaped information processing device of the second embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart for a message recording operation of the secondembodiment.

FIGS. 13 and 14 form a sequence chart of the second embodiment for anoperation of asking the caller to wait for a moment.

FIG. 15 is the watch-shaped information processing device of the secondembodiment displaying information on its display asking the caller towait for a moment.

FIGS. 16 and 17 form a sequence chart of the second embodiment for anoperation of activating answering machine function.

FIGS. 18, 19, and 20 are the watch-shaped information processing devicesof the second embodiment displaying information on their displays duringconducting answering machine function.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart for a message playing operation of the secondembodiment.

FIGS. 22 and 23 are the watch-shaped information processing devices ofthe second embodiment displaying information during playing caller'smessage.

FIG. 24 shows a mobile telephone system of the third embodiment.

FIGS. 25 and 26 form a sequence chart for an operation of the thirdembodiment.

FIG. 27 shows a configuration of a modification of the mobile telephoneof the first, second, and third embodiments.

FIGS. 28 and 29 are modification of the watch-shaped informationprocessing devices of the first, second, and third embodiment displayinginformation on their displays.

FIG. 30 shows a configuration of a radio communication system of thefourth embodiment.

FIGS. 31A and 31B are to explain notification operation of the fourthembodiment.

FIG. 32 shows a configuration of a mobile telephone of the fourthembodiment.

FIG. 33 shows a configuration of a watch-shaped information processingdevice of the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 34 is a timing chart of transmitting inquiry signals and respondingthem in a sniff mode of the bluetooth communication.

FIG. 35 is a count table of the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 36 is a notification table of the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 37 is a flowchart for process of updating the notification table ofthe fourth embodiment.

FIG. 38 is a sequence chart showing operations for shutting off abluetooth device.

FIG. 39 is a flowchart showing a notification process of the fourthembodiment.

FIG. 40 is a sequence chart of the system of the fourth embodiment.

FIGS. 41, 42, and 43 are the watch-shaped information processing devicesof the fourth embodiment displaying information.

FIG. 44 shows piconets of the fourth embodiment.

BEST MODE OF CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

With reference to the drawings, preferred embodiments of the presentinvention will be described.

A. First Embodiment

FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a mobile telephone system 10 of thefirst embodiment of the present invention. The service of this mobiletelephone system is available to a number of mobile telephones. But, inorder to simplify explanations, only mobile telephones 11 and 13 areshown in FIG. 1, and explanations will be given of the service that thetwo mobile telephones receive.

The mobile telephone system 10 includes a watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12 that is used together with the mobile telephone 11.The watch-shaped information processing device 12 is one example of theradio communication devices of the present invention, and the mobiletelephone 11 is one example of mobile telephones of the presentinvention. The watch-shaped information processing device 12 performsbidirectional radio communication with the mobile telephone 11. Themobile telephone system 10 also has a mobile network 17 and a pluralityof radio base stations 14 that are connected with the mobile network 17.The radio base station 14 established a radio communication line withthe mobile telephone 11 or 13. The mobile network 17 is connected with apublic switched telephone network (PSTN) 16. Fixed telephones 15 andother equipment are connected with the PSTN 16. The mobile telephones 11and 13 are able to communicate with each other via the mobile network17. Also, the mobile telephones 11 and 13 are able to communicate withthe fixed telephone 15 via the mobile network 17 and the PSTN 16.

FIG. 2 shows a configuration of a watch-shaped information processingdevice 12 of the first embodiment. A transmitter circuit 24 in FIG. 2conducts signal transmitting operation to the mobile telephone 11. Areceiver circuit 23 in FIG. 2 conducts signal receiving operation fromthe mobile telephone 11. The transmitter circuit 24 (described later)has a circuit for generating oscillation signal SVCO. The oscillationsignal SVCO is used for signal transmitting operation in the transmittercircuit 24 and also is provided to the receiver circuit 23 for receivingoperation. The frequency of the oscillation signal SVCO is defined bysynthesizer control signal SSY output from a central control circuit 25.A switching circuit 22 switches an antenna unit 21 between to an inputterminal of the receiver circuit 23 and to an output terminal of thetransmitter circuit 24.

In order for the watch-shaped information processing device 12 toreceive signals, the antenna unit 21 is connected to the input terminalof the receiver circuit 23 by the switching circuit 22. Then thereceiver circuit 23 receives signals from the mobile telephone 11 viathe antenna unit 21. Then, the receiver circuit 23 demodulates thesesignals into a received data DRX by using the oscillation signal SVCO tooutput to the central control circuit 25.

On the other hand, in order for the watch-shaped information processingdevice 12 to transmit signals, the antenna unit 21 is connected to theoutput terminal of the transmitter circuit 24. Then the transmittercircuit 24 receives a transmission data DTX from the central controlcircuit 25. The transmitter circuit 24 produces high frequency signalwith a frequency designated by the synthesizer control signal SSY. Themodulation of the high frequency signal is done based on thetransmission data DTX. The transmitter circuit 24 sends the highfrequency signal to the mobile telephone 11 via the antenna unit 21.

The central control circuit 25 controls components of the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12, but detailed description of thesecontrols will be given later.

Under the control of the central control unit 25, an electronic soundunit 26 produces electronic sound or buzzer sound to notify the user ofstates of the mobile telephone 11 or the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12. These states may be, for example, a device statesuch as calling state, call-receiving state, or error state. A vibrator27 vibrates also under the control of the central control circuit 25 tonotify the user of states of the mobile telephone 11 or the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12. A light emitting unit 28 has an LED orother light emitting device, and emits light under the control of thecentral control circuit to notify the user of states of the mobiletelephone 11 or the watch-shaped information processing device 12. Adisplay unit 29 is equipped with a liquid crystal display or an organicelectroluminescence display, and displays information on states of themobile telephone 11 or the watch-shaped information processing device 12under the control of the central control circuit 25.

An external input unit 30 is equipped with buttons, a touch panel, andso on. Operating state of the external input unit 30 is checked by thecentral control circuit 25.

A reference signal generator circuit 32 is connected with an oscillator31, which generates a source oscillation signal having a referencefrequency. The reference signal generator circuit 32 generates variousreference signals to output to the central control circuit 25.

A nonvolatile memory 33 stores various data and programs. These data andprograms are not lost even when power to the nonvolatile memory 33 islost. The data stored in the nonvolatile memory 33 include a unique IDnumber NID for the watch-shaped information processing device 12 andanother unique ID number NIDT for the mobile telephone 11 that. isassociated with the watch-shaped information processing device 12. Theprograms stored in the nonvolatile memory 33 include a control programthat controls the watch-shaped information processing device 12 when,for example, there is an incoming call to the mobile telephone 11. Acentral processing unit (CPU) in the central control circuit 25functions as a controller unit of the radio communication devices of thepresent invention by executing the control programs stored in thenonvolatile memory 33.

A battery 34 supplies power to components of the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12.

A voice codec 38 decodes output signals of the central control circuit25 to output voice data to a voice interface unit (voice I/F unit) 39.Also, the voice codec 38 encodes voice data from the voice interfaceunit 39 to output to the central control circuit 25.

The voice interface unit 39 performs digital-to-analog conversion on thevoice data that is output by the voice codec 38 to output analog voicesignal, then a speaker 35 outputs it. Also, the voice interface unit 39performs analog-to-digital conversion on analog voice signals that areinput via a microphone 36 to output voice data to the voice codec 38.

In this configuration, the receiver circuit 23 and the transmittercircuit 24 function as a transmitter-receiver unit of the radiocommunication device of the present invention. The central controlcircuit 25, the electronic sound unit 26, the vibrator 27, the lightemitter unit 28, and the display unit 29 function as anincoming-call-notification unit of the radio communication device of thepresent invention.

FIG. 3 shows a configuration of the antenna unit 21, the switchingcircuit 22, the receiver circuit 23, and the transmitter circuit 24 ofthe watch-shaped information processing device 12. As shown in FIG. 3,the antenna unit 21 is equipped with an antenna 21A and an antennafilter 21B. The antenna filter 21B eliminates unnecessary signal thatmay exist on the incoming signal and outputs only necessary signal tothe receiver circuit 23. The antenna filter 23 B also eliminatesunnecessary signal that may exist on the output signal of thetransmitter circuit 24 and outputs only necessary signal to the antenna21A.

In the receiver circuit 23, an RF amplifier 23A amplifies the receivedsignal of the antenna unit 21 to output to a mixer 23C. The mixer 23C isalso provided with the oscillation signal SVCO from the transmittercircuit 24 via a buffer amplifier 23B. The mixer 23C then mixes thesetwo signals and outputs to a bandpass filter 23D.

The bandpass filter 23D selects signal which has Intermediate Frequency(IF) from the output signals of the mixer 23C to output to an IFamplifier 23E. The IF amplifier 23E amplifies the signal with the IF tooutput to a demodulator circuit 23F. While outputting the signal withthe IF, the IF amplifier 23E outputs to the central control circuit 25 asignal strength signal SSS that indicates intensity of the receivedsignal. The demodulator circuit 23F demodulates the signal with the IFinto the received data DRX to the central control circuit 25.

In the transmitter circuit 24, a PLL circuit 24A, a low pass filter 24B,and a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) 24E cooperate to generate theoscillation signal SVCO. The frequency of the oscillation signal SVCO isdefined by the synthesizer control signal SSY.

A modulator circuit 24H modulates carrier using the transmission dataDTX to output signal which has IF. The signal with the IF is provided toa mixer 24G via an IF amplifier 24C and a low pass filter 24D. The mixer24G mixes the signal with the IF and the oscillation signal SVCO tooutput high frequency signal. The high frequency signal is amplified bya power amplifier 24F and then provided to the antenna unit 21 via theswitching circuit 22.

Description of the antenna unit, the switching circuit, the receivercircuit, and the transmitter circuit of the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12 was given above. The mobile telephone 11 also hasthe similar components in it.

The antenna unit, the switching circuit, the receiver circuit, and thetransmitter circuit of the mobile telephone 11 correspond to atransmitter-receiver unit of the mobile telephone of the presentinvention. Also, the central control circuit (not shown in the figure)of the mobile telephone 11 that performs data communication using theabove transmitter-receiver unit corresponds to a control unit of themobile telephone of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sequence chart showing an operation of the first embodiment.With reference to the figure, the operation of the first embodiment willbe described.

At the initial state S1, the mobile telephone 11 periodically transmitsan identification signal (which corresponds to the ID number NIND of themobile telephone 11) having a synchronization signal using a carrier of430 MHz or 2.45 GHz. On the other hand, the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12 performs carrier sensing operation. As long as thewatch-shaped information processing device 12 is receiving theidentification signal from the mobile telephone 11, a synchronization ofbidirectional communication exists between the watch-shaped informationdevice 12 and the mobile telephone 11. When there is thissynchronization and the watch-shaped information processing device 12received from the mobile telephone 11 the identification signal thatcorresponds to the ID number NIND stored in the nonvolatile memory 33,the watch-shaped information processing device 12 can communicate withthe mobile telephone 11. By this communication, the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12 can recognize the operating state ofthe mobile telephone 11.

Also at the initial state S1, as shown in FIG. 5, a date, day of theweek, and a current time are shown on the display unit 29 of thewatch-shaped information processing device 12. Also shown on the displayunit 29 is a signal strength indicator SSI that tells strength of thereceived signal from the mobile telephone 11. The signal strengthindicator SSI is displayed depending on the signal strength signal SSSoutput from the IF amplifier 23E of the receiver circuit 23.

The reason to display the signal strength indicator SSI is to notify theuser of quality deterioration or loss of radio communication between themobile telephone 11 and the watch-shaped information processing device12.

When there is an incoming call to the mobile telephone 11 as shown inFIG. 4 (step S2), the mobile telephone 11 examines if there is acommunication link with the watch-shaped information processing device12 (step S3). The incoming call may be, for example, from the fixedtelephone 15 via the PSTN, the mobile network 17, and the radio basestation 14, or from another mobile telephone 13 via the radio basestation 14 and the mobile network 17.

When the watch-shaped information processing device 12 is not within agiven range of the mobile telephone Hand there is no communication linkbetween them (step S3: NO), the mobile telephone 11 notifies the user ofincoming call by producing sound from its own speaker or producingvibration by vibrator (step S4).

On the other hand, when there is a communication link between the mobiletelephone 11 and the watch-shaped information processing device 12 (stepS3: YES), the mobile telephone 11 pages the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12 and sends information about the incoming call (stepS5). In more detail, the mobile telephone 11 generates a send data DTXTthat includes information to the effect that there is an incoming call,an ID number NID of the watch-shaped information processing device 12,and a telephone number of the caller. Then the mobile telephone 11modulates carrier using the send data DTXT to output to the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12 an incoming call notification signalwhich is a high frequency signal. As a circuit to generate a highfrequency signal in the mobile telephone 11, a similar circuit to thetransmitter circuit 24 in FIG. 3 is used.

In the watch-shaped information processing device 12, the incoming callnotification signal is received in the antenna unit 21 and the receivercircuit 23 demodulates the incoming call notification signal to thereceived data DRX (step S6). This received data DRX includes informationto the effect that there is an incoming call, an ID number NID of thewatch-shaped information processing device 12, and a telephone number ofthe caller.

On receiving the received data DRX, the central control circuit 25determines that there is an incoming call to the mobile telephone 11,and then notifies user of incoming call and displays information (stepS7). In more detail, in order to notify the user of incoming call, thecentral control circuit 25 controls the electronic sound unit 26 toproduce a buzzer sound or an electronic sound, the vibrator 27 toproduce a vibration, or the light emitting unit 28 to blink lightemitting device such as an LED. The central control circuit 25 alsoextracts the telephone number of the caller from the received data DRX,and displays on the display unit 29 the telephone number and otherrelated information, if any information such as name of the caller isregistered in advance. FIG. 6 shows the information for this case. Shownon the display unit 29 in FIG. 6 are the telephone number of the callerand a phrase meaning call incoming.

When the user notices an incoming call, s/he takes the mobile telephone11 from the bag and makes a conversation. However, there is a case whenthe user cannot answer the incoming call. In that case, by the followingoperation, the user can send information telling that the user cannotanswer the phone at the moment. The operation can be that the useroperates buttons 30A, 30B, and 30C of the external input unit 30 to sendinstruction from the watch-shaped information processing device 12 tothe mobile telephone 11 (steps S8 and S9). The instruction may be forsending a voice message that asks the caller to wait for a moment. Whenthe mobile telephone 11 receives the instruction, it answers the callautomatically and makes a communication link. Then, the mobile telephone11 reads an encoded data of voice message from an unshown nonvolatilememory. The voice message may be like “I am not able to answer the phoneat the moment, please wait for a moment.” Then the mobile telephone 11sends the encoded data to the caller (step S11).

By this embodiment, when there is an incoming call to the mobiletelephone, because the watch-shaped information processing device isnotified of the incoming call, its user can recognize the incoming calland see caller's phone number without taking the mobile telephone fromthe bag.

B. Second Embodiment

FIG. 7 shows a configuration of a mobile telephone 11A of a mobiletelephone system of the second embodiment, and FIG. 8 shows aconfiguration of a watch-shaped information processing device 12A of themobile telephone of this mobile telephone system.

The mobile telephone system of the second embodiment has similarconfiguration to that shown in FIG. 1. But the mobile telephone 11 isreplaced with the mobile telephone 11A and the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12 with the watch-shaped information processing device12A.

In this mobile telephone system, when there is an incoming call to themobile telephone 11A, the mobile telephone 11A sends an incoming callnotification signal to the watch-shaped information processing device12A. Based on the incoming call notification signal, the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12A notifies the user of the incomingcall. Also, the watch-shaped information processing device 12A sendspre-stored voice message to the mobile telephone 11A based on user'sinstruction. This voice message is transmitted to the caller via themobile network 17.

Next, with reference to FIG. 7, a configuration of the mobile telephone11A will be described.

As shown in FIG. 7, a bluetooth module 42 performs bidirectionalcommunication with the watch-shaped information processing device 12Avia a antenna 41 for bluetooth.

A microprocessor 43 has a read only memory (ROM) and a random accessmemory (RAM) for storing various data. The microprocessor 43 controlscommunication, application, and entire units of the mobile telephone11A. Main control operation conducted by the microprocessor 43 are asfollows; a control for sending an incoming call notification signal tothe watch-shaped information processing device 12A when there is anincoming call, and a control for processing for incoming call.

An LCD driver 45 drives a liquid crystal display (LCD) 44 under acontrol of the microprocessor 43.

An RF unit 47 conducts a high frequency signal processing such asamplifying high frequency signal, and conducts a radio communicationwith mobile network via an antenna 46.

A W-CDMA baseband processing unit 48 conducts baseband processing thatis modulation/demodulation of the baseband signal for wide-band codedivision multiple access (W-CDMA).

A voice codec 49 decodes the output of the W-CDMA baseband processingunit 48 to output voice data and encodes voice data from a voiceinterface (IF) unit 52 to output to the W-CDMA base band processing unit48.

The voice interface (IF) unit 52 conducts a digital-to-analog conversionon the voice data output from the voice codec 49 into analog voicesignal, and voice sound is output from a speaker 50. The voice interfaceunit 52 also conducts a digital-to-analog conversion on analog signalinput from a microphone 51 into a voice data, and the voice data isoutput to the voice codec 49.

The external input unit 56 is equipped with various operation keys, anoperation stick, a touch panel, and a jog dial, and operated by theuser.

Next, configuration of the bluetooth module 42 will be described.

An RF unit 54 of the bluetooth module 42 performs high frequency signalprocessing such as amplifying high frequency signal and performsbidirectional communication with the watch-shaped information processingdevice 12A.

A baseband processing unit 55 modulates/demodulates baseband signalsbased on bluetooth technique.

Also, the bluetooth module 42 has a flash memory, a voltage regulator, aquartz oscillator, and other peripherals (all not shown). Theconfiguration of this bluetooth module is already known.

The flash memory of the bluetooth module 42 stores various necessaryinformation for bluetooth radio communication such as a bluetooth deviceaddress, a link key, and an encryption key. The bluetooth device addressis used for identifying other bluetooth devices. The link key is usedfor authorizing radio communication when starting it. The encryption keyis used for encrypted communication.

The bluetooth module 42 with the above configuration transmits, based oninstructions from the microprocessor 43, to the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A control data such as incoming call notificationsignal that indicates there is an incoming call. This bluetooth module42 also sends to the watch-shaped information processing device 12Avoice data that is sent from other telephone via the mobile network 17.Also, the bluetooth module 42 receives various control data and voicedata that are sent from the watch-shaped information processing device12A, and outputs the received data to the microprocessor 43 and theW-CDMA base band processing unit 48 via a bus 53.

Next, configuration of the watch-shaped information processing device12A will be described with reference to FIG. 8.

The watch-shaped information processing device 12A shown in FIG. 8 issimilar to the watch-shaped information processing device 12 of thefirst embodiment shown in FIG. 2. However, the antenna unit 21, thereceiver circuit 23, and the transmitter circuit 24 are replaced with anantenna 61 for bluetooth and a bluetooth module 62. The bluetooth module62 functions as a transmitter-receiver unit of the radio communicationdevice of the present invention.

The bluetooth module 62 has a similar configuration to that of the abovementioned bluetooth module 42. An RF unit 54 of the bluetooth module 62performs high frequency signal processing such as amplifying highfrequency signal and performs bidirectional communication with thewatch-shaped information processing device 11A. A baseband processingunit 64 modulates/demodulates baseband signals using bluetoothtechnique. Also, the bluetooth module 62 has a flash memory, a voltageregulator, a quartz oscillator, and other peripherals (all not shown).The configuration of this bluetooth module is already known. The flashmemory of the bluetooth module 62 stores various necessary informationfor bluetooth radio communication such as a bluetooth device address, alink key, and an encryption key. The bluetooth device address is usedfor identifying other bluetooth devices. The link key is used forauthorizing radio communication when starting it. The encryption key isused for encrypted communication.

The bluetooth module 62 transmits various control data generated by thecentral control circuit 25A and voice data read from the nonvolatilememory 33 to the watch-shaped information processing device 11A. Thebluetooth module 62, also, receives various control data and voice datathat are sent from the mobile telephone 11A, and outputs the receiveddata to the central control circuit 25A.

The nonvolatile memory 33 stores various messages such as for asking thecaller to wait for a moment and for answering machine function. Also,the caller stores his or her message in the nonvolatile memory 33. Thenonvolatile memory 33 also stores a process table that is describedlater. The nonvolatile memory 33 also stores control programs thatperform notification of incoming call when the incoming callnotification signal from the mobile telephone 11A is received, and thatmake the mobile telephone 11A to conduct a process for incoming call. Byperforming these control programs, the central control circuit 25Afunctions as a control unit of the radio communication device of thepresent invention.

Other components are basically the same as those shown in FIG. 2,therefore, the description for them is not given here.

Next, the central control circuit 25A of the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A will be described.

The central control circuit 25A controls the bluetooth module 62 andtransmits/receives voice data and control data to and from the mobiletelephone 11A. In this case, the central control circuit 25A selectsfrom four transmit/receive modes to transmit control data, transmitvoice data, receive control data, and receive voice data.

FIG. 9 shows a configuration of a central control circuit 25A.

As shown in FIG. 9, the central control circuit 25A has a centralprocessing unit (CPU) 2557, switching elements 2551 and 2552, a ROM, anda RAM. The central control circuit 25A can also perform datacommunication on asynchronous connection less (ACL) link and synchronousconnection oriented (SCO) link.

The ACL link is an asynchronous communication link defined in thebluetooth technical specification. In the bluetooth system, two or moreunits sharing the same channel form a piconet. One Bluetooth unit actsas the master of the piconet, whereas the other unit(s) acts asslave(s). Using the ACL link, the master unit performs datacommunication with several slave units. Effective communication speed inthe ACL link varies depending on the number of slaves and the amount ofexchanged data in the piconet. Also, the master polls the slaves basedon state of the communication slot, and performs data communication withthe slaves using empty communication slot. Therefore, the ACL link isusually used for non-real-time communication.

The watch-shaped information processing device 12A of the secondembodiment uses the ACL link to exchange asynchronous data that does notrequire real time processing with the mobile telephone 11A. Theasynchronous data here can be control data used for various instructionsand controls among the watch-shaped information processing device 12Aand the mobile telephone 11A.

When conducting communication on the ACL link, the CPU 2557 sends abuffer select control signal to the switching elements 2551 and 2552 toswitch the switching element 2551 to an ACL buffer memory 2553 forreceiving and to switch the switching element 2552 to an ACL buffermemory 2552 for transmission. Then the received data DRX output from thebluetooth module 62 is written in the ACL buffer memory 2553 forreceiving via the switching element 2551. When one packet full ofasynchronous data is written, an unshown memory controller transmits areceive interrupt signal to the CPU2557. In response to the receiveinterrupt signal, the CPU 2557 reads the asynchronous data stored in theACL buffer memory 2553 for receiving. On the other hand, asynchronousdata generated by the CPU 2557 is written on an ACL buffer memory 2555for transmission. Then the asynchronous data is read from the ACL buffermemory 2555 for transmission and is output to the bluetooth module 62via the switching element 2552 as the transmission data DTX. When onepacket full of control data is sent and the ACL buffer memory 2555 fortransmission becomes empty, an unshown memory controller transmits adata sending completion interrupt signal to the CPU2557. In response tothe data sending completion interrupt signal, the CPU 2557 writes in theACL buffer memory 2555 for transmission the asynchronous data to be sentnext.

The above is detailed configuration of the second embodiment forcommunication on the ACL link.

Next, the SCO link will be described. The SCO link is a synchronouscommunication link defined in the bluetooth technical specification.This SCO link is a point-to-point link between the master and a specificslave. The SCO link reserves slots for communication between the masterand the slave at a given interval, and can therefore have a certaincommunication speed (in this embodiment 64 kbps). Therefore, the SCOlink is usually used for real-time communication.

The watch-shaped information processing device 12A of the secondembodiment exchanges voice data by using the SCO link.

When conducting communication on the SCO link, the CPU 2557 sends abuffer select control signal to the switching elements 2551 and 2552 toswitch the switching element 2551 to the SCO buffer memory 2554 forreceiving and to switch the switching element 2552 to the SCO buffermemory 2556 for transmission. Then the received data DRX output from thebluetooth module 62 is written in the SCO buffer memory 2554 forreceiving via the switching element 2551. When one packet full ofasynchronous data is written, the unshown memory controller transmits areceive interrupt signal to the CPU2557. In response to the receiveinterrupt signal, the CPU 2557 reads voice data stored in the SCO buffermemory 2554 for receiving.

On the other hand, transmission operation is as follows. Several voicemessages such as response message are stored in the nonvolatile memory33 in advance. Voice data for telephone communication is stored in anunshown RAM by using the microphone 36, the voice interface unit 39, andvoice codec 38. Voice data stored in the nonvolatile memory 33 or theunshown RAM is read by the CPU 2557 and written in an SCO buffer memory2556 for transmission. Then the voice data is read from the SCO buffermemory 2556 for transmission and is output to the bluetooth module 62via the switching element 2552 as the transmission data DTX. When onepacket full of voice data is sent and the SCO buffer memory 2556 fortransmission becomes empty, an unshown memory controller transmits adata requiring interrupt signal to the CPU2557. In response to the datarequiring interrupt signal, the CPU 2557 reads voice data to be sentnext from the nonvolatile memory 33 or the unshown RAM to write in theSCO buffer memory 2556 for transmission.

The above is detailed configuration of the second embodiment forcommunication on the SCO link.

Next, the nonvolatile memory 33 will be described.

The nonvolatile memory 33 stores voice data for various messages and anaddress management table AMT having memory address of the above voicedata.

FIG. 10 shows an address management table AMT stored in a nonvolatilememory of the watch-shaped information processing device of the secondembodiment. FIG. 11 is a memory map showing content of the nonvolatilememory 33.

As shown in FIG. 10, message types and memory addresses for the voicedata of the message types are associated with each other and written inthe address management table AMT.

In FIG. 10, for example, “please wait message” is a message which issent to the caller when the user cannot answer the phone at the moment.To illustrate, it may be a message such as “please wait for a moment,I'll answer your call soon”.

In FIG. 10, voice data for the “please wait message” is stored in amemory area with memory address “ad0001” to “ad0010” of the nonvolatilememory 33. When the central control circuit 25A reads the “please waitmessage”, the central control circuit 25A sees the address managementtable AMT to get the memory address for the “please wait message”. Usingthe address, the central control circuit 25A reads data of the “pleasewait message” from the nonvolatile memory 33. The read data is then sentto the mobile telephone 11A via the bluetooth module 62 and the antenna61 for bluetooth. Then the data is sent from the mobile telephone 11A tothe telephone of the caller, and finally voice is output at the caller'stelephone.

In this case, the data for the “please wait message” may be stored inthe nonvolatile memory 33 of the watch-shaped information processingdevice 12A prior to shipment. Also, the user can store his or her owndata for the “please wait message” by using the microphone 36,conducting analog-to-digital conversion on his or her voice, and storingin the nonvolatile memory 33. When the user stores his or her own datafor the “please wait message”, the central control circuit 25A sees theaddress management table AMT and acquires the memory address for thedata. Then the central control circuit 25A designates the acquiredmemory address as a writing address, and writes the data input by theuser into the nonvolatile memory 33.

“Call response message” shown in FIG. 10 is a message sent to the callerwhen the user of the mobile telephone 11A cannot answer the phone. Themessage, for example, may be “I am not available at the moment, pleaseleave a message after the tone”.

In FIG. 10, voice data for the call response message is stored in amemory area with memory address “ad0011” to “ad0020” of the nonvolatilememory 33. The central control circuit 25A reads the data for callresponse message as follows.

First, the central control circuit 25A sees the address management tableAMT to get the memory address for the call response message.

Then, using the address, the central control circuit 25A reads data ofthe call response message from the nonvolatile memory 33. The read datais then sent to the mobile telephone 11A via the bluetooth module 62 andthe antenna 61 for bluetooth in the same way as the data for “pleasewait message”. Then the data is sent from the mobile telephone 11A tothe telephone of the caller, and finally voice is output at caller'stelephone.

This data of the call response message may also be stored in thewatch-shaped information processing device 12A prior to shipment. Also,the user can store his or her own voice for the call response message byusing the microphone 36. When the user stores his or her own data forthe call response message, the central control circuit 25A sees theaddress management table AMT and acquires the memory address for thedata. Then the central control circuit 25A designates the acquiredmemory address as a writing address, and writes the data input by theuser into the nonvolatile memory 33.

“Caller's message No. 1” to “caller's message No. 10” shown in FIG. 10are messages that the caller left as messages to the user of the mobiletelephone 11 when they heard the above “call response message”. In FIG.10, it is possible to store up to ten messages.

As shown in FIG. 11, in a memory area for voice data of the caller'smessage (hereinafter referred to as caller's message data), text dataindicating the time of the incoming call (hereinafter referred to asincoming call time data) and other text data indicating the caller(hereinafter referred to as caller data) are stored. In a memory regionafter these data, voice data of caller's message are stored. The centralcontrol circuit 25A generates the incoming call time data based on timekept by the time keeping function of the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A. Also, by using a caller's phone number displayservice provided by the mobile network 17 (this service is already knownin America as a caller ID), caller data is acquired. Then the centralcontrol circuit 25A associates the incoming call time data and thecaller data with the caller's message and writes them on the nonvolatilememory 33.

When recording the caller's message data, the central control circuit25A sees the address management table AMT and acquires a memory addressfor the caller's message data.

Then the central control circuit 25A stores the caller's message databased on the memory address. In this case, the central control circuit25A stores the caller's message data in an order from “caller's messageNo. 1”, “caller's message No. 2” . . . to “caller's message No. 10”.When reached to “caller's message No. 10”, the central control circuit25A returns to the “caller's message No. 1”, erases it, and writes a newcaller's message data there.

When the central control circuit 25A reads the caller's message data, itsees the address management table AMT and acquires the memory addressfor the caller's message the user desired.

Using the memory address, the central control circuit 25A reads theincoming call time data, the caller data, and the caller's message.

The incoming call time data and the caller data are displayed on thedisplay unit 29 in a text form. The caller's message data is decoded bythe voice codec 38 and then output from the speaker 35 via the voice IFunit 39.

Next, operations of the second embodiment will be described.

Hereinafter, explanation will be given in an order from;

(1) message recording process by the watch-shaped information processingdevice 12A,

(2) operation while asking the caller to wait for a moment

(3) operation during answering machine function

(4) caller's message playing process by the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A.

(1) Message Recording Process by the Watch-shaped Information ProcessingDevice 12A

FIG. 12 is a flowchart for a message recording operation by the centralcontrol circuit 25A of the watch-shaped information processing device12.

In FIG. 12, the central control circuit 25A regularly scans the externalinput unit 30, and makes a judgement if the user operates it or not(step Sa1).

When the user uses the external input unit 30 to instruct to recordmessage asking to wait for a moment, the central control circuit 25Adetects user's operation (step Sa1; Yes) and starts reading voice data(step Sa2). To illustrate, the user speak to the speaker and the user'svoice is sent to the voice interface unit 39, which generates voicedata. Then the voice data is encoded by the voice codec 38 and thecentral control circuit 25A receives it.

Then the central control circuit 25A sees the address management tableAMT shown in FIG. 10 in the nonvolatile memory 33. The central controlcircuit 25A then writes the voice data on a memory area with memoryaddress that start from “ad0001”that is a memory area for “please waitmessage”in the nonvolatile memory 33 (step Sa3).

The processes in steps Sa2 and Sa3 are continued until the user operatesto stop recording (step Sa4), or until a prescribed time period that isa longest recordable time period has elapsed (step Sa5). When there iseither the recording stop operation or elapse of longest recordable time(step Sa4 Yes or step Sa5 Yes), process in FIG. 12 ends.

In the above explanation for the recording process, “please waitmessage” is used. However, similar recording process is also used forrecording the call response message. For the call response message,other memory area is used, though.

(2) Operation While Asking the Caller to Wait for a Moment

With reference to a sequence chart in FIGS. 13, and 14, operation whileasking the caller to wait for a moment will be described.

The watch-shaped information processing device 12A carries out asynchronization establishment phase and a link connection phase, bothare defined in the bluetooth specification, to form a communicationnetwork with the mobile telephone 11A called a piconet (step Sb1). Thenoperational modes of the mobile telephone 11A and the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12A shifts to a low power consumption modecalled a park mode (step Sb2). During the mode shifting, severalprocesses are conducted in a master unit and a slave unit using abluetooth device address and a link key. However, these processes arealready known, explanation for them will not given here.

In the second embodiment, either the watch-shaped information processingdevice 12A or the mobile telephone 11A can be a master unit or a slaveunit. The following explanation is given with the assumption that themobile telephone 11A is a master unit and the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A is a slave unit.

In this low power consumption mode, a date, the day of the week, and acurrent time are displayed as shown in FIG. 5 on the display unit 29 ofthe watch-shaped information processing device 12A. Displayed also onthe displayed unit 29 is the signal strength indicator SSI that shows anintensity of the received beacon signal periodically sent from themobile telephone 11A. This indicator is based on the above mentionedsignal strength signal SSS.

The reason to display the signal strength indicator SSI is to tell theuser of quality deterioration or loss of radio communication between themobile telephone 11A and the watch-shaped information processing device12A.

When the user (referred to as a caller in this explanation) of themobile telephone 13 in FIG. 1 calls the user of the mobile telephone11A, the mobile network 17 sends a terminating call signal via the radiobase station 14 (step Sb3). This terminating call signal includestelephone numbers of the mobile telephone 11A and 13.

When the mobile telephone 11A in a service area of the radio basestation 14 receives the terminating call signal, the mobile telephone11A instructs the watch-shaped information processing device 12A, aslave unit, to shifts from the park mode to a link connection phase bythe ACL link. By this, operation of the mobile telephone 11A and thewatch-shaped information processing device 12A shift to the linkconnection phase by the ACL link (step Sb5).

When the ACL link is established, the mobile telephone 11A sends theincoming call notification signal in ACL packets in order to notify theincoming call (step SB6). The incoming call notification signal includesthe caller's telephone number of the mobile telephone 13 and informationto the effect that there is an incoming call.

When the watch-shaped information processing device 12A receives the ACLpackets (step Sb7), it finds that there is an incoming call to themobile telephone 11A and displays information and notifies the user ofincoming call. To illustrate, the watch-shaped information processingdevice 12A extracts the caller's telephone number from the ACL packets.Then the watch-shaped information processing device 12A displays on thedisplay unit 29 telephone number or information corresponding to thetelephone number to notify the user of the incoming call (step Sb8). Oneexample what is displayed on the display unit 29 in this case is shownin FIG. 6. Instead of the telephone number of the caller, caller's namethat is associated with the telephone number and stored in a memory (forexample the nonvolatile memory 33) of the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A may be displayed.

The watch-shaped information processing device 12A also performs theincoming call notification (step Sb9). To illustrate, the centralcontrol circuit 25A controls the electronic sound unit 26 to producebuzzer sound or electronic sound. The central control circuit 25A alsocontrols the vibrator 27 to vibrate. The central control circuit 25Aalso controls the light emitting unit 28 to blink the light emittingdevice such as an LED.

When the user notices the incoming call notification, the user has totake the mobile telephone 11A from the bag to answer the call. However,there are some cases where the user cannot answer the call or the usercannot open the bag. In these cases, the user uses the external inputunit 30 on the watch-shaped information processing device 12A forinstruction for “please wait message”.

The watch-shaped information processing device 12A receives these inputs(step Sb10) and sends to the mobile telephone 11 ACL packets thatincludes instruction for “please wait message” (step Sb11).

When the mobile telephone 11A receives the ACL packet (step Sb12), itextracts the instruction for “please wait message”. In response to theinstruction for “please wait message”, the mobile telephone 11A ordersthe radio base station 14 to make a communication link with the caller'smobile telephone 13 (step Sb13).

The radio base station 14 carries out a predetermined process such asfor allocating a communication channel, and makes a communication linebetween the mobile telephone 11A and the mobile telephone 13 (stepSb14).

Then the mobile telephone 11A instructs the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A to shift from the link connection phase by the ACLlink to the link connection phase by the SCO link.

In response to the instruction for phase shift, operations of the mobiletelephone 11A and the watch-shaped information processing device 12Ashift to the link connection phase by the SCO link (step Sb15).

After the SCO link is established, the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A sees the address management table AMT to acquire areadout address of “ad0001” to “ad0010”. Then the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12A reads the data for “please waitmessage” from the nonvolatile memory 33 and sends the data to the mobiletelephone 11A via the SCO link (step Sb16). During this process, thecaller's telephone number and a message “please wait for a moment” areshown on the display unit 29 of the watch-shaped information processingdevice 12A to inform the user of the state as shown in FIG. 15.

When the mobile telephone 11A receives data for “please wait message”using the bluetooth module 42, the mobile telephone 11A sends the datato the radio base station using the W-CDMA base band processing unit 48,the RF unit 47, and the antenna 46 (step Sb17).

The data for “please wait message” is received by the radio base station14 (step Sb18), and then is sent to the caller's mobile telephone 13 viathe mobile network 17. Then the message is output from the speaker ofthe mobile telephone 13. The user of the mobile telephone 13 hears themessage and waits for a moment or hangs up the phone.

The process from the step SB16 to the SB18 is continued until the userof the mobile telephone 11A operates the mobile telephone 11A, and thecaller is kept hearing the message for “please wait message”.

When the user of the mobile terminal 11A becomes able to operate it andconducts an off-hook operation using the external input unit 56, themobile telephone 11A accepts the off-hook operation (step Sb19).

In response to the off-hook operation, the mobile telephone 11A stopsreading voice data from the bluetooth module 42. Then the mobiletelephone 11A carries out processes for direct voice communicationbetween the caller and the user of the mobile telephone 11A (step Sb20).

To illustrate, the user speaks to the microphone 51, then voice data isgenerated for the user's voice by the voice IF unit 52, and then thevoice data is encoded by the voice codec 49. This voice data is sent tothe radio base station 14 using the W-CDMA base band processing unit 48,the RF unit 47, and the antenna 46.

Also, voice data sent from the mobile telephone 13 is output from thespeaker 50 through the antenna 46, the RF unit 47, the W-CDMA base bandprocessing unit 48, the voice codec 49, and the voice interface unit 52.

The mobile telephone 11A instructs the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A to shift from the link connection phase by the SCOlink to the link connection phase by the ACL link. In response to theinstruction for phase shift, operations of the mobile telephone 11A andthe watch-shaped information processing device 12A shift to the linkconnection phase by the ACL link (step Sb21).

When the ACL link is established, in order to notify a communicationstart, the mobile telephone 11A sends ACL packets that includes acommunication start notification (step Sb22).

When the watch-shaped information processing device 12A receives theabove ACL packets (step Sb23), it detects the communication startnotification in the ACL packets. By detecting the communication startnotification, the watch-shaped information processing device 12A judgesthat communication with the mobile telephone 11A has started and makes ashift to the park mode in the same way as step Sb2 (step Sb24).

After finishing the telephone communication, the user of the mobiletelephone 11A uses the external input unit 56 to conduct an on-hookoperation. The mobile telephone 11A accepts this operation (step Sb25)and sends a request for releasing the telephone line to the radio basestation 14, and by this the telephone line is released (step Sb26).

(3) Operation During Answering Machine Function

With reference to a sequence chart shown in FIGS. 16 and 17, operationduring answering machine function will be described.

In FIG. 16, processes from step Sc1 to Sc9 are the same as those of fromstep Sb1 to Sb9 in FIG. 13, therefore explanation will not given forthem. So explanation will start from the process of step Sc10.

By the incoming call notification in steps Sc8 and Sc9, the user noticesthat there is an incoming call. However, when the user cannot answer thephone, the user uses, in a prescribed order, the external input unit 30of the watch-shaped information processing device 12A to use theanswering machine function.

The watch-shaped information processing device 12A accepts thisoperation (step Sc10), then it sends to the mobile telephone 11A ACLpackets that includes an order for answering machine function (stepSc11).

Also, advancing to step Sc11 can be carried out in the following way.The watch-shaped information processing device 12A starts time-countingwhen it receives the incoming call notification signal in step Sb6. Andwhen a prescribed time period has passed without the above mentioneduser's operation, the process advances to the step Sc11. Therefore, itis possible to advance to step Sc11 even when the user does not noticethe incoming call notification or the user does not carry thewatch-shaped information processing device 12A.

When the mobile telephone 11A receives the above ACL packets (stepSc12), it detects the order for answering machine function. Then themobile telephone 11A orders the radio base station 14 to make acommunication line (step Sc13 in FIG. 17).

In response to this, the radio base station 14 carries out prescribedprocesses such as allocating communication channel to make acommunication line between the mobile telephone 13 and the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12A (step Sc14).

Then, the mobile telephone 11A instructs the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A to shift from the link connection phase by the ACLlink to the link connection phase by the SCO link. In response to theinstruction for phase shift, operations of the mobile telephone 11A andthe watch-shaped information processing device 12A shift to the linkconnection phase by the SCO link (step Sb15).

After the SCO link is established, the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A sees the address management table AMT to acquire areadout address of “ad0011” to “ad0020”. Then the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12A reads the data for “call responsemessage” from the nonvolatile memory 33 and sends the data to the mobiletelephone 11A via the SCO link (step Sc16). As shown in FIG. 18, duringthis process, the caller's telephone number and a message “callanswering” are shown on the display unit 29 of the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12A to inform the user of the state.

When the mobile telephone 11A receives data for “call answering message”using the bluetooth module 42, the mobile telephone 11A sends the datato the radio base station using the W-CDMA base band processing unit 48,the RF unit 47, and the antenna 46 (step Sc17).

The data for “call answering message” is received by the radio basestation 14 (step Sc18), and then is sent to the caller's mobiletelephone 13 via the mobile network 17. Then the message is output fromthe speaker of the mobile telephone 13. The user of the mobile telephone13 hears the message and speaks to the mobile telephone 13 in order toleave his or her message after the tone. His or her message is sent fromthe mobile telephone 13 to the mobile telephone 11A via the mobilenetwork 17 and the radio base stations 14 (step Sc20).

The mobile telephone 11A receives the data for the message (step Sc21),and then sends the data to the watch-shaped information processingdevice 12A via the SCO link (step Sc22).

The watch-shaped information processing device 12A carries out theprocess for the step Sc16, and then advances to recording operation ofcaller's message (step Sc19). To illustrate, when the data for caller'smessage is received by the watch-shaped information processing device12A, it sees the address management table AMT in the nonvolatile memory33 shown in FIG. 10. Then the watch-shaped information processing device12A writes the voice data for the caller's message in memory area forthe caller's message. In this explanation, the data is written in anarea for the “caller's message No. 1”, and memory address for the“caller's message No. 1” starts “ad0021”.

As shown in FIG. 19, during this process, the caller's telephone numberand a message “recording caller's message” are shown on the display unit29 of the watch-shaped information processing device 12A to inform theuser that the call is currently leaving a message.

After finishing leaving his or her message, the caller conducts anon-hook operation. In response to the on-hook operation, the mobiletelephone 13 sends a request for releasing the telephone line to theradio base station 14, and by this the telephone line between the radiobase station 14 and the mobile telephone 11 is released (step Sc23).

When the communication line is released, the mobile telephone 11Ainstructs the watch-shaped information processing device 12A to shiftfrom the link connection phase by the SCO link to the link connectionphase by the ACL link. In response to the instruction for phase shift,operations of the mobile telephone 11A and the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A shift to the link connection 16 phase by the ACLlink (step Sc24).

After the ACL link is established, in order to notify a communicationend, the mobile telephone 11A sends ACL packets that includes acommunication end notification (step Sc25).

When the watch-shaped information processing device 12A receives theabove ACL packets (step Sc26), it detects the communication endnotification in the ACL packets.

By detecting the communication end notification, the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12A judges that communication with themobile telephone 11A has ended and stops recording operation of voicedata (step Sc27). As shown in FIG. 20, during this process, the caller'stelephone number and a message “finish recording message” are shown onthe display unit 29 of the watch-shaped information processing device12A to inform the user that the message recording is finished.

Then, the operations of the mobile telephone 11A and the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12A shift to the park mode (step Sc28)which is similar to step Sb2.

(4) Caller's Message Playing Process by the Watch-shaped InformationProcessing Device 12A.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart for a message playing operation of the secondembodiment.

In FIG. 21, the central control circuit 25A regularly scans the externalinput unit 30, and makes a judgement if the user operates it or not(step Sd1).

When the user uses the external input unit 30 to instruct to play thecaller's message, the central control circuit 25A detects user'soperation (step Sd1; Yes) and advances to step Sd2.

There are “last message playing operation” and “message playingoperation by list” in the playing operation of the caller's message.

By the “last message playing operation”, the last recorded message isplayed.

By the “message playing operation by list”, first the list of allrecorded caller's message are displayed, and then the message the userspecified is played.

In step Sd2, the central control circuit 25A makes a judgement which theauser's operation is between the above two.

When the central control circuit 25A receives the last message playingoperation for playing the caller's message No. 1 (step Sd2: last messageplay), it sees the address management table AMT to acquire a readoutaddress from “ad0021” to “ad0030”.

Then, using the acquired address, the central control circuit 25A readsthe caller's message from the nonvolatile memory 33 (step Sd3).

Then the central control circuit 25A outputs the read caller's messageto the voice codec 38. By this, the caller's message is output from thespeaker 35 (step Sd4). As shown in FIG. 22, during this process, thecaller's telephone number and a message “playing caller's message No. 1”are shown on the display unit 29 of the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A to inform the user that the message is beingplayed.

On the other hand, when the central control circuit 25A receives“message playing operation by list” (step Sd2: playing operation bylist), it sees the address management table AMT and acquires all thereadout addresses for the caller's messages.

Using the readout addresses, the central control circuit 25A reads onlythe incoming call time data and the caller data in the nonvolatilememory 33, and displays them on the display unit 29 (step Sd5). As shownin FIG. 23, during this process, a message “message list” and propertyinformation on messages are shown on the display unit 29 of thewatch-shaped information processing device 12A. In FIG. 23, only a partof the list is shown. However, the user can scroll the screenright-and-left and up-and-below by using the external input unit 30.

When the user specifies a caller's message, the central control circuit25A accepts this (step Sd6: Yes).

Then the central control circuit 25A sees the address management tableAMT and acquires the readout addresses for the specified caller'smessages. Using the readout addresses, the central control circuit 25Areads the caller's message in the nonvolatile memory 33 (step Sd7).

Then the central control circuit 25A outputs the read caller's messageto the voice codec 38. The voice codec 38 decodes the data for thecaller's message, and the caller's message is output from the speaker 35(step Sd4).

When the specified message ends and the user wants to play othercaller's message, the user operates to do so (step Sd8: No). By this,the process of the central control circuit 25A returns to step Sd1 andthe above processes are again carried out.

After finishing the play of the message, when the user conducts anoperation for ending the play (step Sd8: Yes), the processes in FIG. 21end.

As explained above, according to the second embodiment, since theincoming call notification signal of the mobile telephone 11A is sent tothe watch-shaped Information processing device 12A, the user can noticethe incoming call and see the telephone number of the caller withouttaking the mobile telephone 11A from the bag.

Also, according to the second embodiment, by using the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12A, the user can request the “please waitmessage” and a “call response message”.

Also, the user can record the “please wait message” and “call responsemessage” in his or her own voice by using the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A. The user also can record caller's messages in thewatch-shaped information processing device 12A, so the user can hear thecaller's message anywhere anytime.

So, the watch-shaped information processing device 12A becomes aninteresting gadget to its user.

C. Third Embodiment

In the second embodiment, the caller's messages are stored in thewatch-shaped information processing device 12A. In the third embodiment,the caller's messages are stored in a service center connected to themobile network 17.

FIG. 24 shows a configuration of a mobile telephone system of the thirdembodiment. Only one difference of the third embodiment shown in FIG. 24from the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is there is a service center18 connected with the mobile network 17.

The service center 18 has several servers. One of them is for storingcaller's messages for each mobile telephone 11A. Another of them is foraccepting orders from the mobile telephones 11A and for distributing thestored caller's messages in response to the orders.

Therefore, the watch-shaped information processing device 12A does nothave to store the caller's message in the nonvolatile memory 33, whichis the case in the second embodiment. In more detail, only the memoryaddresses for the “please wait message” and for “call response message”have to be stored in the address management table AMT (refer to FIG. 10)for the nonvolatile memory 33 in the watch-shaped information processingdevice 12A. Also, no memory area for caller's messages are provided inthe nonvolatile memory 33.

Other components are the same as in the second embodiment, therefore,explanation for them will not given below.

Next, operation of the third embodiment will be described.

With reference to a sequence chart in FIGS. 25 and 26, operation duringanswering machine function will be described. However, message recordingoperation and operation during the “please wait message” are notdescribed because they are the same operations explained in the secondembodiment.

In FIGS. 25 and 26, processes from step Se1 to Se17 are the same asthose of from step Sc1 to Sc17 in FIGS. 16 and 17, therefore explanationwill not given for them. So explanation will start from the process ofstep Se18.

The data for the call response message that is sent from the mobiletelephone 11A is received by the radio base station 14 (step Se18). Thenthe data is sent to the mobile telephone 13 via the mobile network 17.The message is output from the unshown speaker of the mobile telephone13.

On the other hand, the mobile telephone 11A sends to the radio basestation 14 an answering machine forward request for switching thecurrent communication line between the mobile telephone 13 and themobile telephone 11A to other communication line between the mobiletelephone 13 and the service center 18 (step Se19).

When an unshown exchange in the mobile network 17 receives the answeringmachine forward request via the radio base station 14, it changes thecurrent communication line between the mobile telephone 13 and themobile telephone 11A to other communication line between the mobiletelephone 13 and the service center 18 (Step Se20). Then a communicationend notification is sent form the radio base station 14 to the mobiletelephone 11A (step Se21). Thereby, the communication line between themobile telephone 13 and the mobile telephone 11A is released (stepSe22).

After changing communication is finished, the user of the mobiletelephone 13 speaks his or her message after the tone. The message issent to the service center 18 via the mobile network 17, and the servicecenter 18 records the message.

When the communication line is released, the mobile telephone 11Ainstructs the watch-shaped information processing device 12A to shiftfrom the link connection phase by the SCO link to the link connectionphase by the ACL link. In response to the instruction for phase shift,operations of the mobile telephone 11A and the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A shift to the link connection phase by the ACL link(step Se24).

After the ACL link is established, in order to notify a communicationend, the mobile telephone 11A sends ACL packets that includes acommunication end notification (step Se25).

When the watch-shaped information processing device 12A receives theabove ACL packets (step Se26), it detects the communication endnotification in the ACL packets. By detecting the communication endnotification, the watch-shaped information processing device 12A judgesthat communication with the mobile telephone 11A has ended and shifts tothe park mode which is described in step Se2 (step Se27).

Playing operation of the caller's message is as follow. The user usesthe mobile telephone 11A to call to the service center 18. Then the usercarries out a predetermined operation procedure to hear the caller'smessage.

As described above, caller's messages can be stored and played as thesecond embodiment.

D. Modifications of First, Second, and Third Embodiments

(1) First Modification

In the first embodiment, voice message asking waiting for a moment issent from the mobile telephone to the caller. However, there are caseswhen the user cannot use the mobile telephone to answer the phone suchas while driving. For these cases, the following configuration may bepreferable.

First, encoded data for a response message of “I cannot answer the phoneat the moment, please leave a message after the tone” is stored in anunshown nonvolatile memory of the mobile telephone 11.

Then when there is an incoming call to the mobile telephone 11, anincoming call notification signal is sent to the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12. Then the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12 receives the incoming call notification signal.When a predetermined button operation is conducted on the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12, it sends an message recording request.It is also possible to automatically send the message recording requestby so configuring the watch-shaped information processing device 12.Buttons may be used to set the watch-shaped information processingdevice 12. In this case, on receiving the incoming call notificationsignal, or after a prescribed time period has passed, the messagerecording request is sent.

When the mobile telephone 11 receives the message recording request, itreads from the nonvolatile memory 33 the encoded data for the responsemessage and sends to the caller. In response to this, if the callersends a message, the mobile telephone 11 stores the message in a storagemeans such as an unshown RAM or in a message recording area in anonvolatile memory.

(2) Second Modification

In the above first, second, and third embodiment, when there is anincoming call to the mobile telephone 11 or 11A, the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12 or 12A sends to the mobile telephone 11or 11A necessary information for the incoming call process. In additionto this, it is possible to modify the embodiment. In one possiblemodification, the mobile telephone 11 or 11A intermittently makes acommunication with the watch-shaped information processing device 12 or12A. When the mode of the mobile telephone 11 or 11A shifts, it notifiesthe mode to the watch-shaped information processing device 12 or 12A.Then the mode of the watch-shaped information ,processing device isshifted to the same mode.

As these modes, there are, for example, an incoming call soundgeneration mode for outputting sound when there is an incoming call, avibration mode for producing vibration when there is an incoming call, asilent mode for not outputting sound when there is an incoming call, andother mode that is preferable under which both the mobile telephone andthe watch-shaped information processing device are in the same mode.

For example, when the silent mode is set where the mobile telephone 11does not output incoming signal sound and makes a communication in apredetermined interval of for example five minutes, the watch-shapedinformation processing device does not output an incoming call signalsound.

By this, it is possible to simplify the settings; thereby theoperability is enhanced.

(3) Third Modification

In the above first, second, and third embodiment, it is possible to usethe watch-shaped information processing device 12 or 12A as a remotecontrol device of the mobile telephone 11 or 11A.

For example, by operating buttons on the external input unit 30 of thewatch-shaped information processing device 12 or 12A, instructions aresent to the mobile telephone 11 or 11A, and the mobile telephone 11 or11A is shifted to silent mode.

In this case, after mode shift is completed, data that tells settingcompletion is sent from the mobile telephone 11 or 11A to thewatch-shaped information processing device 12 or 12A. Then informationfor the setting completion is displayed on the display unit 29 of thewatch-shaped information processing device 12 or 12A. Hence, the usercan know that there happens a setting change.

(4) Fourth Modification

In the second embodiment, caller's messages are stored in thewatch-shaped information processing device 12A, and in the thirdembodiment, they are stored in the service center 18 on the mobilenetwork 17.

However, caller's messages may-be stored in the mobile telephone 11A. Inthis case, the watch-shaped information processing device 12A does nothave the nonvolatile memory 33 and the address management table AMT forrecording and playing caller's messages. On the other hand, the mobiletelephone 11A needs to have components for recording and playingcaller's messages.

(5) Fifth Modification

It is also possible to make a mobile telephone system with the mobiletelephone 11A (refer to FIG. 7) and the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12A both of the second embodiment (refer to FIG. 7),and make the mobile telephone system perform the operation of the firstembodiment. Namely, when there is an incoming call to the mobiletelephone 11A, the watch-shaped information processing device 12A sendsto the mobile telephone 11A an instruction signal instead of sendingvoice message, the instruction makes the mobile telephone 11A send voicemessage. When the mobile telephone 12A receives the instruction, itmakes call connection to the caller's telephone and sends to thecaller's telephone voice message that asks the caller to wait for amoment. In order to achieve this, the mobile telephone 11A has anonvolatile memory 57 as shown in FIG. 27 and stores encoded data of thevoice message. When the mobile telephone 11A receives the instruction,it reads the encoded data of the voice message in the nonvolatile memory57 and sends it to the caller.

(6) Sixth Modification

In the above explanation for the first, second, and third embodiments,when the mobile telephone 11 or 11A has e-mail function or web pageviewer function, a modification may be possible as follows. When thereis e-mail message or during web page auto-browsing, data for the e-mailmessage or the web page is sent to the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12 or 12A and is displayed on the display unit 29 ofthe watch-shaped information processing device 12 or 12A. By thismodification, the user can read e-mail message or see web page withouttaking the mobile telephone 11 or 11A from his or her bag.

Explanation is given under an assumption that this modification isapplied to the second embodiment.

First, explanation of e-mail is given.

An assumption is used here that there is a connection between the mobiletelephone 11A and the watch-shaped information processing device 12Abefore accessing to a mail server.

First, on the display of the watch-shaped information processing device12A, screen image on the mobile telephone 11A for connecting to the mailserver is displayed. This is achieved by sending HTML data from themobile telephone 11A.

When the user presses a button on the display by using the externalinput unit 30, the watch-shaped information processing device 12A sendsto the mobile telephone 11A a button ID that is related to the pressedbutton. The mobile telephone 11A receives the button ID, and generatesan event for the pressed button ID to give to a user interface. The userinterface is a software installed in the mobile telephone 11A, andaccepts the generated event by the operation of the input unit of themobile telephone 11A, and carries out the instructed process by theevent. The user interface receives the event and then interprets it asinstruction for mail receiving. Then the user interface. carries outprocesses for mail receiving based on post office protocol version 3(POP3).

The mobile telephone 11A makes the watch-shaped information processingdevice 12A display list of the received e-mail messages on its display.It is possible to display a list that includes all the received e-mailmessage, instead of displaying a list that only includes newly-receivede-mail messages.

When the user selects an e-mail message using the external input unit30, the watch-shaped information processing device 12A sends data forthis selecting operation to the mobile telephone 11A via a connectionlink between them. When the mobile telephone 11A receives data for theselecting operation, it generates event that is equivalent to an eventto the mobile telephone 11A. Thereby, it is possible to select anddisplay an e-mail message.

FIG. 28 shows a display screen after an e-mail message is selected. InFIG. 28, the user sees that an e-mail message, and title and part of themessage.

Next, operation during viewing web page will be described.

An assumption is used here that there is a connection between the mobiletelephone 11A and the watch-shaped information processing device 12Abefore accessing to a content server.

First, on the display of the watch-shaped information processing device12A, screen image on the mobile telephone 11A for connecting to thecontent server is displayed. This is achieved by sending HTML data fromthe mobile telephone 11A.

When the user presses a button on the display by using the externalinput unit 30, the watch-shaped information processing device 12A sendsto the mobile telephone 11A a button ID that is related to the pressedbutton. The mobile telephone 11A receives the button ID, and generatesan event for the pressed button ID to give to a user interface.

As a result, GET messages that specify uniform resource locator (URL)are sent from the mobile telephone 11A. The get message is a message ofHyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and used to get a resource specifiedby the URL.

When the mobile telephone 11A receives data of the web page specified bythe URL from the content server, the mobile telephone 11A sends the datato the watch-shaped information processing device 12A.

The watch-shaped information processing device 12A displays screen imagefor the data on its display. In more detail, as shown in FIG. 29, a webpage is displayed.

When the user uses the external input unit 30 to press a button on thescreen, the watch-shaped information processing device 12A to the mobiletelephone 11A a button ID that is related to the pressed button. Themobile telephone 11A receives the button ID, and generates an event forthe pressed button ID to give to a user interface.

As a result, another GET message is sent from the mobile telephone 11A,and the same processes are carried out.

(7) Seventh Modification

In the above explanation for the first, second, and third embodiments,another modification may be possible by which the user can perform atelephone communication by using the microphone 36 and the speaker 35 ofthe watch-shaped information processing device 12 or 12A as follows.When there is an incoming call to the mobile telephone 11 or 11A,communication links between the caller's telephone and the mobiletelephone 11 or 11A and between the mobile telephone 11 or 11A and thewatch-shaped information processing device 12 or 12A are established.Using the links, the user makes telephone conversation with the caller.

The steps for achieving the above are as follows.

The mobile telephone 11 receives an incoming call from the caller, andthen sends to the watch-shaped information processing device 12 anincoming call notification signal.

In response to the signal, the watch-shaped information processingdevice 12 notifies the user of the incoming call. The user notices thenotification, and uses the external input unit 30 to respond theincoming call. The central control circuit 25 of the watch-shapedinformation processing device 12 sends the mobile telephone 12 an answerfor the incoming call and an instruction to establish a communicationlink between the mobile telephone 11 and the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 12.

As suggested by the instruction, the mobile telephone 11 forwards theanswer for the incoming call to the radio base station 14. The mobiletelephone 11 also makes a telephone line with the caller's telephone anda communication line with the watch-shaped information processing device12.

By using them and the microphone 36 and the speaker 35 of thewatch-shaped information processing device 12, the user can make atelephone communication with the caller.

(8) Eighth Modification

In the explanation in the first, second, and third embodiments, onlybluetooth is used for a method for bidirectional communication. However,it is possible to use other method if the method enables communicationin a range of several tens of meters.

(9) Ninth Modification

In the above explanation for the first, second, and third embodiments,when there is an incoming call to the telephone 11 or 11A, voice messagefor asking for leaving a message or for waiting for a moment is sent tothe caller. However, information sent to the caller is not limited tothese messages. For example, data of synthetic sound for melody, chime,or song of birds may be sent to the caller. Also, instead of sendingvoice, sending image or text information that asks the caller to waitfor a moment or to leave a message may be possible.

(10) Tenth Modification

In the above explanation for the first, second, and third embodiments,watch-shaped information processing device is used as one example of theradio communication device. However, instead of shape of watch,ring-shaped, necklace-shaped, pendant-shaped and other wearable shape ispossible.

(11) Eleventh Modification

In the above explanation for the first, second, and third embodiments,control programs for the mobile telephone and the watch-shapedinformation processing device are preinstalled in a ROM, a RAM, or anonvolatile memory.

However, it is possible to carry out the present invention in thefollowing way.

First, control programs for the mobile telephone or the watch-shapedinformation processing device of the above embodiments are recorded onstorage media such as semiconductor memory, optical disc such as compactdisc (CD), compact disc recordable (CD-R), digital versatile disk (DVD),DVD-recordable (DVD-R), DVD-Random Access Memory (DVD-RAM), magneticoptical disk such as Magneto-Optical (MO), Mini-Disk (MD), hard diskdrive, or flexible disk. Then the media are distributed to users. Theuser who got the media installs the control program to the memory (flashROM or RAM) of the mobile telephone or the watch-shaped informationprocessing device by using an appropriate drive device. Then the microprocessor unit (MPU) of the mobile telephone or the watch-shapedinformation processing device operates according to the control programinstalled in its memory.

Also, it is possible to distribute the control program to users of themobile telephone or the watch-shaped information processing devicethrough network such as the Internet, a private line (wireless orwired), public circuit (wireless or wired). The user who got the controlprogram installs the control program to the memory (flash ROM or RAM) ofthe mobile telephone or the watch-shaped information processing deviceby using an appropriate drive device. Then the MPU of the mobiletelephone or the watch-shaped information processing device operatesaccording to the control program installed in its memory.

E. Fourth Embodiment

A system is being studied to perform various data communication betweenseveral electronic devices by connecting them through bidirectionalradio links to form a wireless network. By this system, for example,image data taken by a digital camera is transmitted to a personalcomputer and stored in it. The image data also is transmitted to aprinter from the personal computer to print. As electronic devices,portable devices are possible. Also, a radio system such as bluetoothmay be used for this system. However, the bluetooth radio system enablesradio communication within a range of only about ten meters (in classtwo of bluetooth specification). Therefore, radio communication link maybe cut off depending on the location of the user of the bluetooth unit.In that case, the user has to reestablish a radio communication link,which is a troublesome operation for the user. Hence, it is very usefulif the user can know the state of the radio communication link and avoidthe cut-off of the radio communication link. However, there is no meansfor the user to know the state of the radio communication link and it isimpossible to avoid cut-off of the radio communication link.

The fourth embodiment is to make it possible to notify a user of stateof the bidirectional radio communication between the electronic devices.

FIG. 30 shows a configuration of a radio communication system of thefourth embodiment. This system as shown in FIG. 30 has a watch-shapedinformation processing device 1, a mobile telephone 2, an MPEG 1 audiolayer 3 (MP3) player 3, a notebook computer 4, a personal digitalassistants (PDA) 5, and a digital camera 6, and other portable devices.

Each of the devices 1 to 6 has a function of bidirectional radiocommunication that is based on the bluetooth specification within arange of about ten meters (hereinafter the function is referred to as abluetooth communication). The devices 1 to 6 form a network calledpiconet, exchange various information using a frequency band of 2.45GHz, and perform various application software.

According to the bluetooth specification, the piconet can have a masterunit and up to seven slave units.

In FIG. 30, the watch-shaped information processing device 1 is a masterunit and the portable device 2 to 6 are slave units. In the fourthembodiment, explanation will be given using this relation in FIG. 30.Also, in the following explanation, device with a bluetoothcommunication function is referred to as a bluetooth unit.

In the above system, the watch-shaped information processing device 1has a function that can detect a state shift from communication-able tocommunication-disable between the watch-shaped information processingdevice 1 and the portable devices 2 to 6 and can notify the user of acurrent communication state.

In more detail, if state of the communication between the watch-shapedinformation processing device 1 and the portable devices 2 to 6 changefrom an excellent quality shown in FIG. 31A to a bad quality shown inFIG. 31B. This quality decline can be because one of the communicatingdevices has gone outside of the communication area.

The watch-shaped information processing device 1 detects this statechange and notifies the user the current communication state.

From here, explanation will be given in detail of a configuration forachieving this function.

FIG. 32 shows a configuration of a mobile telephone 2. Other portabledevices 2 to 6 have the same configuration as the mobile telephone 2 forbluetooth communication.

A bluetooth module 2022 of the mobile telephone 2 makes a bluetoothcommunication with other bluetooth units through an antenna 2021 forbluetooth.

A central control circuit 2023 controls entire units of the mobiletelephone 2.

A user interface unit 2025 receives various users'operations andnotifies the user of various information under a control of the centralcontrol circuit 2025.

A radio communication device 2027 performs a radio communication with anunshown radio base station of the mobile network via an antenna 2026 fortelephone.

A voice processing unit 2028 carries out a predetermined processing onsignals output from the radio communication device 2027 to output voicesignal to a speaker 29. The voice processing unit 2028 outputs signalsfor voice signal input form a microphone 2030 to the radio communicationdevice 2027.

A battery 2031 supplies power to components enclosed by a dotted line inFIG. 32.

A switching circuit 2032 switches a line connected to the battery2031between connection and cut-off.

An RF unit 221 of the bluetooth module 2022 performs high frequencysignal processing such as amplifying high frequency signal and performsbidirectional communication with other bluetooth unit.

A baseband processing unit 222 modulates/demodulates baseband signalsbased on bluetooth technique.

Also, the bluetooth module 2022 has a flash memory, a voltage regulator,a quartz oscillator, and other peripherals (all not shown). Theconfiguration of this bluetooth module is already known.

The flash memory of the bluetooth module 2022 stores various necessaryinformation for bluetooth radio communication such as a bluetooth deviceaddress, a link key, and an encryption key. The bluetooth device addressis used for identifying other bluetooth devices. The link key is usedfor authorizing radio communication when starting it. The encryption keyis used for encrypted communication.

The central control circuit 2023 is equipped with a central processingunit (CPU), a read only memory (ROM), and a random access memory (RAM)connected on a bus, all not shown in the figure. The ROM stores variouscontrol programs. The CPU reads the control programs and carries outvarious processing operations. The RAM is used as a work area of theCPU.

A display unit 251 of the user interface 2025 is equipped with a liquidcrystal display or an organic electroluminescence display, and displaysvarious information.

A light emitting unit 252 has an LED or other light emitting device, andemits to notify the user of states of the device.

An electronic sound unit 253 is a device that produces electronic soundor buzzer sound to notify the user of states of the device.

A vibrator 254 vibrates to notify the user of states of the device.

An external input unit 255 is equipped with various operation keys, anoperation stick, a touch panel, and a jog dial, and operated by theuser.

Under a control of the central control circuit 2023, a drive circuit 256drives the display unit 251, a drive circuit 257 the light emitting unit252, a drive circuit 258 the electronic sound unit 253, a drive circuit259 drives the vibrator 254.

An RF unit 271 of the radio communication device 2027 performs highfrequency signal processing such as amplifying high frequency signal andperforms radio communication with the radio base station via the antenna2026 for telephone. A baseband controller 272 modulates/demodulatesbaseband signals.

A voice codec 281 of the voice processing unit 2028 decodes the outputsignal of the base band controller 272 to output voice data. The voicecodec 281 encodes the voice data that is output from a voice interfaceunit which is later described, then output it to the base bandcontroller 272.

A voice interface unit 282 of the voice processing unit 2028 conductsdigital to-analog conversion on voice data output from the voice codec281 into analog voice signal, then the speaker 202 outputs voice. Thevoice interface unit 282 conducts analog-to-digital conversion on analogsignal input from the microphone 2030 into voice data to output to thevoice codec 281.

As a result, the user can make a telephone communication with otherpeople by using the speaker 2029 and the microphone 2030.

Based on a switching control signal provided from the CPU 2023 and on anoperation the user conducts on the external input unit 255, a switchingcircuit 2032 carries out switching operation between connection andcut-off of the power supply.

As described, the mobile telephone 2 has a configuration for telephonefunction and and for bluetooth communication used for communication withother bluetooth unit.

The portable devices 2 to 6 have these configurations in common. Namely,every portable device 2 to 6 can perform its own function and bluetoothcommunication.

Therefore, from the description for the mobile telephone 2,configuration of portable devices other than mobile telephone 2 iseasily conceivable. So explanations for them will not be given.

FIG. 33 shows a configuration of a watch-shaped information processingdevice 1.

A bluetooth module 1012 of the watch-shaped information processingdevice 1 carries out bluetooth radio communication with the mobiletelephone 2 via an antenna 1011.

A central control circuit 1023 controls entire units of the watch-shapedinformation processing device 1.

A quartz oscillator 1014 generates a source oscillation signal having areference frequency.

A user interface unit 1015 receives various users'operations andnotifies the user of various information.

A battery 1016 supplies power to components enclosed by a dotted line inFIG. 33.

An RF unit 122 of the radio communication device 1012 controls aswitching circuit 121 that is connected to an antenna 1011 and conductsbidirectional radio communication via the antenna 1011.

A baseband controller 123 modulates/demodulates baseband signals.

A quartz oscillator 124 generates a source oscillation signal having areference frequency.

The bluetooth module 1012 also has unshown flash memory and a voltageregulator and other components.

A communication quality monitoring unit 125 of the base band controller123 monitors quality of bluetooth communication.

The communication quality monitoring unit 125 has a count table 126 andmonitors communication quality of the bluetooth communication with theportable device 2 to 6. Based on this monitoring, the communicationquality monitoring unit 125 increases count number of the count table126 depending on a degree of quality degradation of bluetoothcommunication. When quality of bluetooth communication recovers, thecount number of the count table 126 is cleared.

An unshown flash memory stores various necessary information such as abluetooth device address, a link key, and an encryption key as with thecase of the flash memory of the mobile telephone 2.

In a ROM 132 of the central control circuit 1013, various controlprograms are stored.

A CPU 131 reads the control programs from the ROM 132 and carries outvarious control processing.

A RAM 133 is used as a work area of the CPU 131 and stores anotification table 134 for managing information, the information beingto decide what kind of notification is made to the user depending on thecommunication state with other bluetooth unit.

A display unit 151 of the user interface 1025 is equipped with a liquidcrystal display or an organic electroluminescence display, and displaysvarious information.

A light emitting unit 152 has an LED or other light emitting device, andemits light to notify the user of states of the device.

An electronic sound unit 153 is a device that produces electronic soundor buzzer sound to notify the user of states of the device.

A vibrator 154 vibrates to notify the user of states of the device.

An external input unit 155 is equipped with various operation keys, anoperation stick, a touch panel, and a jog dial, and operated by theuser.

Under a control of the central control circuit 1013, a drive circuit 156drives the display unit 151, a drive circuit 157 the light emitting unit152, a drive circuit 158 the electronic sound unit 153, a drive circuit159 drives the vibrator 154.

Next, quality monitoring method for bluetooth communication of thefourth embodiment will be described.

Master unit and slave units form a piconet through a synchronizationestablishment phase and a link connection phase, both phases are definedin the bluetooth specification. Then, depending on the circumstance,operational modes of the master unit and the slave unit shift to a lowpower consumption mode called a sniff mode. During the mode shifting,several processes are conducted in a master unit and a slave unit usinga bluetooth device address and a link key.

While shifting to the sniff mode, the master unit tells to the slaveunit a cycle of inquiry signal transmission (referred to as inquirysignal cycle from here). After shifting to the sniff mode, the mastersends to the slave unit the inquiry signal based on the inquiry signalcycle.

When the slave unit receives the inquiry signal, it sends to the masterunit an inquiry reply signal in response to the inquiry signal.

FIG. 34 is a timing chart showing the above signal exchanging of inquirysignal and the inquiry reply signal. In FIG. 34, the master unitspecifies a slave unit and sends the inquiry signal (in the figure, thesignal is crosshatched) to it at each inquiry signal cycle. Each slaveunit receives the inquiry signal at each time slot.

In response to the inquiry signal, the slave units 1 and 2 send aninquiry response signal (in the figure, signal is hatched) to the masterunit. The inquiry signal and the inquiry response signal have bluetoothdevice addresses of the transmission side and the receiving side.

As described above, in the sniff mode, the master unit and the slaveunit exchange the inquiry signal and the inquiry response signal. Bythis, the master unit sends various instructions to the slave unit, andthe slave unit sends various requests to the master unit. The slave unitalso carries out synchronization correction.

Communication quality monitoring method of the fourth embodiment isbased on the above explained technology, and will be described in detailbelow.

As shown in a format chart of FIG. 35, the count table 126 stores a listthat tells the number of failures of receiving the inquiry responsesignal from the portable devices 2 to 6. In the list, the number offailures and the bluetooth device addresses of the portable devices 2 to6 are associated. When the communication quality monitoring unit 125 ofthe watch-shaped information processing device 1 does not receives anyinquiry response signal from a slave unit in a slot defined by theinquiry signal cycle, the watch-shaped information processing device 1judges that it fails to receive an inquiry response signal from theslave unit. Then the watch-shaped information processing device 1 addsone to the number of failures of receiving the inquiry response signalof the slave unit.

This addition of one is for counting the number of successively failuresof receiving the inquiry response signal. Therefore, even one success ofreceiving the inquiry response signal from the slave unit clears thecounted number of failures for the slave unit.

Next, the notification table 134 stored in the RAM 133 of thewatch-shaped information processing device 1 will be described.

FIG. 36 is a format chart that shows one example of the notificationtable 134. As shown in FIG. 36, the notification table 134 storesvarious information of the portable device 2 to 6 by using the bluetoothdevice addresses of them.

As various information, there are for example device name, communicationquality flag, power off flag, notification requirement flag,notification device for caution, and notification device for NG.

The content of these information will be described in detail.

The device name is a name of the portable device 2 to 6 input by theuser. When notifying the communication state, these device names areused. In more detail, these device names are displayed o the displayunit 151.

The communication quality flag is a flag that shows the state of thecommunication with the portable device 2 to 6. These states ofcommunication is judged based on bluetooth communication quality withthe portable devices 2 to 6. In the fourth embodiment, threecommunication qualities are used, an “OK” that tells communicationquality is fine, a “caution” that tells communication quality isdeclining, and an “NG” that tells communication is impossible.

-   “OK”, “caution”, and “NG” of the communication quality is judged    based on the number of failures of receiving the inquiry response    signal stored in the count table 126. In the fourth embodiment, when    the number of the failures of receiving the inquiry response signal    is 0 to 2, the communication quality is judged to be “OK”. When the    number of the failures of receiving the inquiry response signal is 3    to 4, the communication quality is judged to be “caution”. When the    number of the failures of receiving the inquiry response signal is    more than 4, the communication quality is judged to be “NG”.

In the notification table 134 in FIG. 36, “1” means flag ON and “0”means flag OFF.

The power off flag becomes ON when the user shuts off the power of theportable devices 2 to 6.

After any portable device 2 to 6 is shut off, it cannot send back to thewatch-shaped information processing device 1 an inquiry response signal.Also the watch-shaped information processing device 1 cannot receive anyinquiry response signal from the portable devices 2 to 6, so it makes ajudgement that the quality of bluetooth communication has declined orbluetooth communication becomes impossible and notifies the user ofcommunication state.

However, because the user him/herself shuts off the power, notifying theuser of the power off the portable device and of the state of thecommunication of the portable device that is power off is not consideredto be necessary. Therefore, the watch-shaped information processingdevice 1 sets power off flag on the portable device that is powered off.When quality of the bluetooth communication with the powered offportable device has declined or the bluetooth communication becomesimpossible, the watch-shaped information processing device 1 does notnotify the user.

The power off flag is turned on in response to a power off signal sentfrom the portable devices 2 to 6 when they are turned off.

The notification requirement flag is a flag that is set on/off dependingon requirement of notification of communication state when bluetoothcommunication quality has declined or bluetooth communication becomesimpossible. That is, if notification is conducted every time when thecommunication quality has declined or the communication becomesimpossible, there will be lots of notification, which may be annoying tothe user. The notification requirement flag is for this situation. Theuser sets on/off of the notification requirement flag of the portabledevice 2 to 6, and based on the set flag, the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 1 carries out notification.

The notification device for caution and notification device for NG tellwhat unit should be used when judged to be “caution” or “NG”, thedisplay unit 151, the light emitting unit 152, the electronic sound unit153, or the vibrator 154. That is, notification is conducted by usingthe unit whose flag is set ON.

The settings of the notification device for caution and notificationdevice for NG may be made by the user or may be preset before shipment.

In FIG. 36, a notebook personal computer 4 with a bluetooth deviceaddress “ad0001” has a state “OK” for bluetooth communication with thewatch-shaped information processing device 1 and therefore is consideredto be making a fine bluetooth communication.

The power off flag for the notebook personal computer 4 is set off.Therefore the personal computer is powered on at the moment.

Also the notification requirement flag is set on, which tells thatnotification have to be carried out when the communication quality hasdeclined or the communication becomes impossible. In this case, when thecommunication quality is judged to be “caution”, notification is made byusing the display unit 151 and the vibrator 154, and when thecommunication quality is judged to be “NG”, notification is made byusing all the display unit 151, the light emitting unit 152, theelectronic sound unit 153, and the vibrator 154.

Next, operations of the fourth embodiment will be described.Hereinafter, explanation will be given in an order from

(1) Updating process of the notification table 134 by the watch-shapedinformation processing device 1

(2) Operation while shutting off portable device

(3) Notification process of communication state by the watch-shapedinformation processing device 1

(4) Operation of the system.

(1) Updating process of the Notification Table 134 by the Watch-shapedInformation Processing Device 1

FIG. 37 is a flowchart that shows an updating process of thecommunication quality flag on the notification table 134 by the centralcontrol circuit 1013. The central control circuit 1013 conducts timekeeping based on the source oscillation signal output by the quartzoscillator 1014, and makes a judgement whether a time has come forreading count table 126 in the communication quality monitoring unit 125(step Sf1).

When it is time for reading (step Sf1 Yes), the central control circuit1013 sees the count table 126 and reads all the counted value stored inthe count table 126 (step Sf2).

Then the central control circuit 1013 makes a judgement on communicationquality based on the readout counted value and aforementioned judgementconditions. Based on the judgement, the central control circuit 1013sets the communication quality flag on the notification table 134 (stepSf3). In FIG. 35, the number of failures of receiving the inquiryresponse signal for the bluetooth device address “ad 0003 ” is 5, so thecommunication quality is judged to be “NG” . Therefore, thecommunication quality flag for the bluetooth device address “ad0003” onthe notification table 134 in FIG. 36 is set “NG”.

These steps Sf1 to Sf3 are repeated to keep the communication qualityflag updated.

(2) Operation While Shutting off Portable Device.

With reference to the sequence chart in FIG. 38, operation whileshutting off the mobile devices 2 to 6 will be described.

The watch-shaped information processing device 1 and the mobiletelephone 2 form a piconet via synchronization establishment phase andlink connection phase defined by the bluetooth technique (step Sg1).Then the watch-shaped information processing device 1 shifts to thesniff mode (step Sg2).

During this sniff mode, for example, when the user of the mobiletelephone 2 shuts off the mobile telephone 2 by using the external inputunit 255. The central control circuit 2023 accepts this operation (stepSg3).

The central control circuit 2023 of the mobile telephone 2 sends requestin a inquiry response signal. The request is for shifting from the sniffmode to the link connection phase by the ACL link. In response to therequest for shifting, connection between the mobile telephone 2 and thewatch-shaped information processing device 1 shifts to a link connectionphase by the ACL link (step Sg4). Here, the ACL link is an asynchronouspacket switched communication link by the bluetooth technique.

When the ACL link is established, the mobile telephone 2 sends a poweroff signal that tells there is a shutting off operation as an ACLpackets (step Sg5). The ACL packets has bluetooth device address “ad0003 ” of the mobile telephone 2.

The watch-shaped information processing device 1 receives the ACLpackets, and detects that there is a shutting off operation on themobile telephone 2 (step Sg6). Then the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 1 sends ACL packets that has a response signal (stepSg7).

The mobile telephone 2 receives the ACL packets (step Sg8), and confirmsthat notification of shutting off is made to the watch-shapedinformation processing device 1.

The watch-shaped information processing device 1 extracts the bluetoothdevice address “ad 0003 ” from the received ACL packets. Then thewatch-shaped information processing device 1 sets the power off flag forthe bluetooth device address “ad 0003 ” ON in the notification table 134shown in FIG. 36 (step Sg9).

Then the communication link between the mobile telephone 2 and thewatch-shaped information processing device 1 is cut off (step Sg10).

The central control circuit 2023 of the mobile telephone 2 sends aswitching control signal to the switching circuit 2032 to shut off thepower (step Sg11).

(3) Notification Process of Communication State by the Watch-shapedInformation Processing Device 1.

FIG. 39 is a flowchart showing operations when the central controlcircuit 1013 of the watch-shaped information processing device 1 carriesout notification of the communication state.

In FIG. 39, the central control circuit 1013 counts time based on thesource oscillation signal output by the quartz oscillator 1014, andmakes a judgement if it is time to read the notification table 134 inthe RAM 133 (step Sh1).

When it is time for reading (step Sh1 Yes), the central control circuit1013 sees the notification table 134 in the RAM 133 (step Sh2).

The central control circuit 1013 makes a judgement whether or not tocarry out notification based on the communication quality flag stored onthe notification table 134 (step Sh3). For example, when the centralcontrol circuit 1013 sees the notification table 134 shown in FIG. 36,it makes a judgement that it needs to conduct a notification operationfor the mobile telephone 2 because the communication quality flag is setON to the “NG” part (step Sh3 Yes).

Then the central control circuit 1013 sees the notification device forNG on the notification table 134 and carries out a notificationoperation (step Sh4). As shown in the notification table 134 in FIG. 36,the central control circuit 1013 controls all the drive circuits 156 to159 to use all the display unit 151, the light emitting unit 152, theelectronic sound unit 153, and the vibrator 154 to conduct notification.When, at step Sh3, judgement is made that “caution” notification isnecessary, the central control circuit 1013 uses notification devicedefined as notification device for caution in the notification table134.

This notification is repeated until a prescribed time period has passedor the user operates to stop it. When the prescribed time period haspassed or the user operates to stop it, the process in FIG. 39 returnsto step Sh1.

When a judgement is made that there is no need of notification (step Sh3No), the process in FIG. 39 returns to step Sh1.

(4) Operation of the System

Referring to the sequence chart in FIG. 40 and using the watch-shapedinformation processing device 1 and the mobile telephone 2 as examples,operation of the system will be described. In FIG. 40, the watch-shapedinformation processing device 1 and the mobile telephone 2 form apiconet via synchronization establishment phase and link connectionphase (step Si1). Then the watch-shaped information processing device 1shifts to the sniff mode (step Si2).

During this sniff mode, when the inquiry signal cycle has come, themaster unit that is the watch-shaped information processing device 1sends an inquiry signal to the slave unit that is the mobile telephone 2(step Si3). The mobile telephone 2 receives the inquiry signal (stepSi4).

The mobile telephone 2 sends an inquiry response signal to thewatch-shaped information processing device 1 (step Si5). Thewatch-shaped information processing device 1 receives the inquiryresponse signal (step Si6).

Similar processing as steps Si3 to Si6 are carried out in each inquirysignal cycle (steps Si7 to Si10). During this steps, as shown in FIG.41, date, month, day of the week, and a current time are displayed onthe display unit 151 of the watch-shaped information processing device1.

Here, explanation is given assuming that the user of the watch-shapedinformation processing device 1 moves and the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 1 is located outside communication area of the mobiletelephone 2.

In this case, when the watch-shaped information processing device 1sends an inquiry signal to the mobile telephone 2 (step Si11), themobile telephone 2 cannot receive the inquiry signal. As a result, themobile telephone s cannot sends an inquiry response signal to thewatch-shaped information processing device 1. Therefore, on the counttable 126 of the watch-shaped information processing device 1, each timewhen inquiry signal cycle comes, the number of failures of receiving theinquiry response signal for the mobile telephone 2 is increased by one.

When this happens three times (steps Si11 to Si13), counted value forthe number of failures of receiving the inquiry response signal for themobile telephone 2 becomes three.

Also as described above, the watch-shaped information processing device1 repeats notification table updating process shown in FIG. 37.Therefore, when the watch-shaped information processing device 1 detectsthat the number of failures of receiving the inquiry response signal onthe count table 126, it sets the flag of caution of communicationquality of the mobile telephone 2 to ON.

The watch-shaped information processing device 1 at the same timecarries out a notification processes shown in a flow chart in FIG. 39.When the watch-shaped information processing device 1 detects that thecommunication quality flag for “caution” on the notification table 134is set ON, the watch-shaped information processing device 1 makes ajudgement that notification is necessary. Then the watch-shapedinformation processing device 1 conducts a notification usingnotification device for caution defined in the notification table 134(step Si14). In more detail, as shown in the notification table 134, thewatch-shaped information processing device 1 uses the display unit 151and the light emitting unit 152 as devices for caution.

During this notification, date, month, the day of the week, a currenttime, and a message “mobile phone CAUTION” are displayed on the displayunit 151 of the watch-shaped information processing device 1 as shown inFIG. 42. At the same time, the light emitting unit 152 makes anotification by such as blinking.

When the watch-shaped information processing device 1 fails to receivetwo inquiry response signals in a row from the mobile telephone 2 (stepSi15 to Si16), the counted value of the number of failures of receivingthe inquiry response signal becomes 5.

By this, the watch-shaped information processing device 1 detects thatthe counted value of the number of failures of receiving the inquiryresponse signal on the count table 126 becomes 5. Therefore, thewatch-shaped information processing device 1 sets the “NG” part of thecommunication quality of the mobile telephone 2 to ON on thenotification table 134.

When the watch-shaped information processing device 1 detects that the“NG” part of the communication quality of the mobile telephone 2 is setON, the watch-shaped information processing device 1 judges that thenotification is necessary.

Then the watch-shaped information processing device 1 conducts anotification using notification device for NG defined in thenotification table 134 (step Si17).

In more detail, as shown in the notification table 134, the watch-shapedinformation processing device 1 uses all the display unit 151, the lightemitting unit 152, the electronic sound unit 153, and the vibrator 154as devices for NG. During this notification, date, month, the day of theweek, a current time, and a message “mobile phone LOST” are displayed onthe display unit 151 of the watch-shaped information processing device 1as shown in FIG. 43. At the same time, the light emitting unit 152 makesa notification by such as blinking, the electronic sound unit 153outputs prescribed buzzer sound or electronic sound, and the vibrator154 repeats vibrations.

These notification operations are repeated until a prescribed timeperiod has passed or the user operates to stop the notification.

As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, the watch-shapedinformation processing device 1 makes a judgement for quality ofbluetooth communication with the portable devices 2 to 6. When thequality has declined or the communication becomes. impossible, thewatch-shaped information processing device 1 makes a notification to theuser. Therefore, the user can easily know when the communication linkseems to be cut off or when the communication link with the portabledevices 2 to 6 are actually cut off.

Therefore, when communication link seems to be cut off, the user canmove to other place or moves the portable device to other place to keepa fine bluetooth communication.

Also the watch-shaped information processing device 1 makes a judgementon communication quality for each portable device 2 to 6, and conducts anotification operation. Therefore, the user can know the state ofcommunication quality for each portable device 2 to 6.

The fourth embodiment may also be applied to a lost propertynotification system for the portable devices 2 to 6.

Recently, portable devices have become compact and are likely to be leftin a house or an office when leaving there. When the fourth embodimentis applied to as a lost property system and the user of the watch-shapedinformation processing device 1 moves from the portable device 2 to 6 ata certain distance, a notification operation is carried out depending onthe decline of the communication quality. Hence, the user can notice heor she leaves the portable devices 2 to 6.

F. Modifications of the Fourth Embodiment

(1) Allocating Master and Slave

In the fourth embodiment, in order to simplify the explanation, thewatch-shaped information processing device 1 works as a master and othermobile devices 2 to 6 work as slaves in the piconet. However, it ispossible to freely allocate master and slave function to any of thedevices.

FIG. 44 shows piconets of the portable devices 1 to 6. In FIG. 44, thewatch shaped information processing device 1 is a master unit and amobile telephone 2, an MP 3 player 3, and a digital camera 6 are slaveunits, and they form a piconet PN1. A PDA 5 is a master unit and thewatch-shaped information processing device 1 and another bluetooth unit7 are slave units, and they form a piconet PN2. A notebook personalcomputer 4 is a master unit and the- watch-shaped information processingdevice 1 is a slave unit, and they form a piconet PN3.

According to the bluetooth specification, one bluetooth unit can becomea master unit in one piconet and can at the same time become a slaveunit in another piconet. In FIG. 44, the watch-shaped informationprocessing device 1 is a master unit in the piconet PN1 and a slave unitin the piconets PN2 and PN3.

In FIG. 44, arrows in solid lines tell directions of transmission ofinquiry signals and arrows in dotted lines tell directions oftransmission of inquiry response signals. For example, the watch-shapedinformation processing device 1 receives inquiry signal from thenotebook personal computer 4 and a PDA5 and inquiry response signal fromthe mobile telephone 2, the MP 3 player 3, and the digital camera 6.Each inquiry signal cycle for the inquiry signal and the inquiryresponse signal is determined in each link between the watch-shapedinformation processing device 1 and each of the portable devices 2 to 6.Therefore, as described above, the number of failures of receiving theinquiry signal or the inquiry response signal can be counted. In thiscase, in the count table 126 shown in FIG. 35, counted values of thenumber of failures of receiving the inquiry signal or the inquiryresponse signal are stored.

(2) Judging Criteria for Communication Quality

In the fourth embodiment, when the, when the number of the failures ofreceiving the inquiry response signal is 0 to 2, the communicationquality is judged to be “OK”. When the number of the failures ofreceiving the inquiry response signal is 3 to 4, the communicationquality is judged to be “caution”. When the number of the failures ofreceiving the inquiry response signal is more than 4, the communicationquality is judged to be “NG”.

However, these judging criteria are not limited to the above, anddesigners or users of the devices may decide them.

Also, judging criteria for communication quality may be based onstrength of received signal instead of the number of failures ofreceiving the signals.

(3) Conflict of Notification Target

In the explanation given using FIG. 36, only mobile telephone 2 has ONflag on “Caution” or “NG” part of the communication quality. Therefore,the watch-shaped information processing device 1 carries out anotification operation only to the mobile telephone 2 by following asequence chart shown in FIG. 40.

However, there are cases where more than one portable devices arenotification targets. In such one case, for example, in addition to theON flag on “NG” part of the communication quality for the mobiletelephone 2 shown in FIG. 36, the PDA 5 has ON flag on “Caution” part ofthe communication quality.

In the above case, it is possible to preset an order of priority fornotification target and make a notification based on this order. Forexample, when the notebook personal computer has an order of 1, the PDAhas an order of 2, the mobile telephone has an order of 3, the MP 3player has an order of 4, and the digital camera has an order of 5,notification for the PDA is carried out prior to the mobile telephone.

These orders of priority may be set at any time by the user, or may beset based on the number of bluetooth communications.

Also, notification operation may be carried out in the order of thepriority for a predetermined time period. For example, if the orders ofpriority are set as described above, notification for the PDA 5 is firstcarried out for five seconds, then notification for the mobile telephoneis carried out for five seconds. This time period may be preset beforeshipment or set by the user.

These orders do not always have to have different number, and may havethe same order of priority. For the devices with the same order ofpriority, notification may be carried out in an arbitrary order.

Also, the display unit 151, the light emitting unit 152, the electronicsound unit 153, and the vibrator 154 may be associated with thenotification target. For example, the display unit 151 is associatedwith the mobile telephone 2. The light emitting unit 152 is associatedwith the notebook personal computer 4. The electronic sound unit 153 isassociated with the PDA. The vibrator 154 is associated with the MP 3player 3. In this case, notification operations for the mobile telephone2 by the display unit 151 and for the PDA 5 by the electronic sound unit153 may be carried out at the same time.

(4) Notification devices

In the fourth embodiment, based on “NG” and “Caution” for thecommunication quality for each portable device 2 to 6, notificationoperation is carried out by using other combination of notificationdevice for each device.

However, it is possible to use the same notification device and changenotification method for each portable device 2 to 6. For example, whenconducting notification operation by using the electronic sound unit153, different melodies may be used for each portable device 2 to 6.Also, different blinking pattern may be used for the light emitting unit152, and different vibration pattern may be used for the vibrator 154.

(5) Method of Radio Communication

In the above explanation, only the bluetooth is used for a method forbidirectional communication. However, it is possible to use other methodif the method enables communication in a range of several tens ofmeters.

(6) Watch-shaped Information Processing Device

In the above explanation, a wristwatch-shaped information processingdevice is used as one example of the device that notifies thecommunication state. However, the term watch is used for wristwatch inthis specification, drawings, and claims. Also, instead of shape ofwatch, shape of ring, shape of necklace, shape of pendant and otherwearable shapes are possible. These wearable devices are also preferablefor a notification system of lost property.

Also, devices that notify the state of the communication are not limitedto wearable devices. They can be just a portable device or a stationarydevice.

In the explanation of the fourth embodiment, one device (watch-shapedinformation processing device 1) in the piconet carries out notificationoperation. However, it is possible to install the unit that performs thenotification operation to every mobile device 2 to 6.

In the fourth embodiment, as shown in FIG. 41, day, the day of the week,and a current time is displayed on the display unit 151 of thewatch-shaped information processing device. However, if the mobiletelephone has an e-mail function and a web-page viewer function, it ispossible to set the mobile telephone or the watch-shaped informationprocessing device to display an e-mail message when it comes or aweb-page when time comes for auto-browsing.

(7) Control Programs

In the fourth embodiment, control programs are preinstalled in a ROM, aRAM, or a nonvolatile memory.

However, similar to the first, second, and third embodiments, in thefourth embodiment the control programs for the mobile telephone or thewatch-shaped information processing device may be recorded in a computerreadable storage media first, and then the storage media may bedistributed to users. Also, such a program can be distributed through atelecommunication line.

1. A radio communication device comprising: a transmitter-receiver unit that carries out local and bidirectional communication with a mobile telephone; an incoming call notification unit that, when the radio communication device receives from the mobile telephone an incoming call notification signal that indicates that there is an incoming call to the mobile telephone, carries out a notification; and a control unit that, by using the transmitter-receiver unit, sends, in response to the incoming call, an instruction signal to the mobile telephone to make the mobile telephone respond to the caller by using voice, and establishes synchronization of transmitting-receiving operation by making intermittent communication with the mobile telephone by using the transmitter-receiver unit.
 2. A radio communication device of claim 1, further comprising an external input unit; wherein the control unit, in response to an operation to the external input unit, sends an instruction signal to make the mobile telephone conduct operations for the incoming call.
 3. A radio communication device of claim 1, further comprising an external input unit; wherein the control unit, when a prescribed time period has passed without any operation to the external input terminal after the notification of the incoming call is carried out, sends an instruction signal to make the mobile telephone conduct operations for the incoming call.
 4. A radio communication device of claim 1: wherein the control unit, when an incoming call auto-response mode is preset to the radio communication device and the radio communication device receives the incoming call notification signal, sends an instruction signal to make the mobile telephone conduct operations for the incoming call.
 5. A radio communication device of claim 1, further comprising a display; wherein the control unit, when there is a telephone number, a mobile telephone identification information, or a caller identification signal of the mobile telephone in the incoming call notification signal received by the mobile telephone, displays them on the display.
 6. A radio communication device of claim 5: wherein the control unit, by using the transmitter-receiver unit, sends to the mobile telephone, as the instruction signal, a signal that instructs the mobile telephone to send to the caller a message that asks the caller to wait for a moment.
 7. A radio communication device of claim 5: wherein the control unit, by using the transmitter-receiver unit, sends to the mobile telephone, as the instruction signal, a signal that instructs the mobile telephone to send to the caller a message that asks the caller to leave a message.
 8. A radio communication device of claim 1: wherein the control unit, by using the transmitter-receiver unit, sends to the mobile telephone, as the instruction signal, a signal that instructs the mobile telephone to make a communication link between the radio communication device and the caller's communication device via the mobile telephone.
 9. A radio communication device comprising: a transmitter-receiver unit that carries out local and bidirectional communication with a mobile telephone; an incoming call notification unit that, when the radio communication device receives from the mobile telephone an incoming call notification signal that indicates that there is an incoming call to the mobile telephone, carries out a notification of the incoming signal; and a control unit that, by using the transmitter-receiver unit, sends to the mobile telephone a message to be sent to the caller to make the mobile telephone conduct processing for the incoming call.
 10. A radio communication device comprising: a transmitter-receiver unit that carries out local and bidirectional communication with a mobile telephone; an incoming call notification unit that, when the radio communication device receives from the mobile telephone an incoming call notification signal that indicates that there is an incoming call to the mobile telephone, carries out a notification of the incoming signal; and a control unit that, by using the transmitter-receiver unit, sends to the mobile telephone a message to be sent to the caller and an instruction signal that makes the mobile telephone conduct processing for the incoming call.
 11. A radio communication device of claim 10, further comprising: a storage unit that stores the message to be sent to a caller's communication device; wherein the control unit sends the stored message to the mobile telephone.
 12. A radio communication device of claim 10, further comprising: an input unit that receives a message to be sent to a caller's communication device; wherein the control unit stores in the storage unit the message that is input by using the input unit.
 13. A radio communication device of claim 10: wherein the message to be sent to the caller is a message that tells the caller to wait for a moment.
 14. A radio communication device of claim 10: wherein the message to be sent to the caller is a message that tells the caller to leave a message.
 15. A radio communication device of claim 10: wherein the storage unit that, after sending the message when a caller-sent information is received through the mobile telephone, stores the caller-sent information.
 16. A radio communication device of claim 15, further comprising: an output unit that outputs the caller-sent information that is stored in the storage unit.
 17. A radio communication device of claim 10: wherein the control unit, after sending to the mobile telephone the message to be sent to the caller, as the instruction signal, sends to the mobile telephone a record instruction that instructs the mobile telephone to record information sent from the caller's communication device in response to the message to be sent to the caller.
 18. A radio communication device of claim 10: wherein the control unit, after sending to the mobile telephone the message to be sent to the caller, as the instruction signal, sends to the mobile telephone a change order that instructs the mobile telephone to let another device on a network as a substitute of the mobile telephone carry out a communication with the communication device of the caller.
 19. A radio communication device of claim 10, further comprising: an operating mode synchronization unit that intermittently conducts a communication with the mobile telephone and, when the operating mode of the mobile telephone shifts, shifts the operating mode of the radio communication device to the operating mode of the mobile telephone after shifting.
 20. A radio communication device comprising: a transmitter-receiver unit that carries out local and bidirectional communication with a mobile telephone; an incoming call notification unit that, when the radio communication device receives from the mobile telephone an incoming call notification signal that indicates that there is an incoming call to the mobile telephone, carries out a notification; and a control unit that, by using the transmitter-receiver unit, sends, in response to the incoming call, a change order that instructs the mobile telephone to let another device on a network as a substitute of the mobile telephone carry out a communication with the communication device of the caller.
 21. A mobile telephone comprising: a transmitter-receiver unit that carries out local and bidirectional communication with a radio communication device; and a control unit that, after receiving an incoming call from a network, sends, by using the transmitter-receiver unit, an incoming call notification signal to the radio communication device, based on an instruction signal received from the radio communication device by the transmitter-receiver unit, responds to the caller by using voice in response to the incoming call, and establishes synchronization of the transmitting-receiving operation by making intermittent communication with the radio communication device by using the transmitter-receiver unit.
 22. A mobile telephone of claim 21, further comprising: an incoming call notification unit; wherein the control unit, when there is an incoming call to the mobile telephone, sends the incoming call notification signal in a case when there is a communication link between the mobile telephone and the radio communication device and carries out notification by using the incoming call notification unit in a case when there is a communication link between the mobile telephone and the radio communication device.
 23. A mobile telephone of claim 21: wherein, during the processing for the incoming call, the control unit sends a connection request to a network, makes a communication link between the mobile telephone and the caller's communication device, and sends to the caller's communication device a message for the caller via the communication link.
 24. A mobile telephone of claim 23: wherein, during the processing for the incoming call, the control unit, by the transmitter-receiver unit, sends to the radio communication device information about the caller sent in response to the message to be sent to the caller.
 25. A mobile telephone of claim 23, further comprising a storage unit: wherein the control unit stores information sent by the caller received via the network after sending message to be sent to the caller.
 26. A mobile telephone comprising: a transmitter-receiver unit that carries out local and bidirectional communication with a radio communication device; and a control unit that, after receiving an incoming call from a network, sends, by using the transmitter-receiver unit, an incoming call notification signal to the radio communication device; and transfers to the caller a message to be sent to the caller, the message being received from the radio communication device by the transmitter-receiver unit.
 27. A mobile telephone of claim 26 that intermittently conducts a communication with the radio communication device and, when the operating mode of the mobile telephone is shifted, sends to the radio communication device an operating mode shifting information that tells the operating mode of the mobile telephone after shifting.
 28. A mobile telephone comprising: a transmitter-receiver unit that can carries out local and bidirectional communication with a radio communication device; and a control unit that, when the mobile telephone receives an incoming call, sends to the radio communication device an incoming call signal by using the transmitter-receiver unit, and when the mobile telephone receives a change order by using the transmitter-receiver unit, request to the network to change the connection from between the mobile telephone and the caller's device to between a device on the network and the caller's device.
 29. A method for controlling a radio communication device with a transmitter-receiver unit that carries out local and bidirectional communication with a mobile telephone, the method comprising: carrying out a notification when the transmitter-receiver unit receives an incoming call notification signal that indicates that there is an incoming call to the mobile telephone; sending, by using the transmitter-receiver unit, an instruction signal that makes the mobile telephone respond to the caller by using voice in response to the incoming call; and establishing synchronization of transmitting-receiving operation by making intermittent communication with the mobile telephone by using the transmitter-receiver unit.
 30. A control method for a radio communication device with a transmitter-receiver unit that is able to carry out local and bidirectional radio communication with a mobile telephone, the method comprising: notifying, when the transmitter-receiver unit receives an incoming call signal, of incoming signal by using a notification unit; and sending a message to be sent to the caller and an instruction signal that makes the mobile telephone respond to the caller by using the message.
 31. A control method for answering an incoming call to a mobile telephone in a system that has the mobile telephone that can carries out local and bidirectional communication with a radio communication device, the method comprising: transmitting an incoming call notification signal by the mobile telephone to the radio communication device when the mobile telephone receives an incoming call; receiving the incoming call notification signal by the radio communication device; notifying the incoming call by the radio communication device; sending an instruction signal that make the mobile telephone respond to the caller by using voice; and establishing synchronization of transmitting-receiving operation between the mobile telephone and the radio communication device by making intermittent communication between them.
 32. A control method for answering an incoming call to a mobile telephone in a system with the mobile telephone that can carry out local and bidirectional communication with a radio communication device, the method comprising: transmitting an incoming call notification signal by the mobile telephone to the radio communication device when the mobile telephone receives an incoming call; receiving the incoming call notification signal by the radio communication device; notifying the incoming call by the radio communication device; and sending a message to be sent to the caller and an instruction signal that makes the mobile telephone respond to the caller by using the message.
 33. A program for controlling a radio communication device that can carry out local and bidirectional radio communication with a mobile telephone, the program comprising: a program that makes a control unit of the radio communication device conduct controlling for an incoming call notification when a transmitter-receiver unit of the radio communication device receives an incoming call notification signal that tells the mobile telephone receives an incoming call; a program that makes the control unit of the radio communication device send an instruction signal that makes the mobile telephone respond to the caller by using voice; and a program that makes the control unit of the radio communication device establish synchronization of transmitting-receiving operation by making intermittent communication with the mobile telephone by using the transmitter-receiver unit.
 34. A program for controlling a radio communication device that is able to carry out local and bidirectional radio communication with a mobile telephone, the program comprising: a program that makes a control unit of the radio communication device conduct controlling for an incoming call when a transmitter-receiver unit of the radio communication device receives an incoming call notification signal that indicates that the mobile telephone receives an incoming call; and a program that makes the control unit of the radio communication device send an instruction signal that makes the mobile telephone send a message to be sent to the caller and respond to the caller by using the message.
 35. A control method for a mobile telephone that can carry out local and bidirectional radio communication with a radio communication device, the method comprising: making a control unit of the mobile telephone conduct controlling to send to the radio communication device an incoming call notification signal when the mobile telephone receives an incoming call; making the control unit of the mobile telephone respond to the caller by using voice based on the instruction signal received from the radio communication device; and making the control unit of the mobile telephone establish synchronization of transmitting-receiving operation by making intermittent communication with the radio communication device.
 36. A control method for a mobile telephone that can carry out local and bidirectional communication with a radio communication device, the method comprising: making, when the mobile telephone receives an incoming call, a control unit of the mobile telephone send an incoming call notification signal to the radio communication device; and making, when the mobile telephone receives, from the radio communication device, a message to be sent to the caller and an instruction signal that instructs the mobile telephone to forward the message, the control unit of the mobile telephone conduct processing for forwarding the message.
 37. A program for controlling a mobile telephone that can carry out local and bidirectional radio communication with a radio communication device, the program comprising: a program that makes a control unit of the mobile telephone conduct controlling to send to the radio communication device an incoming call notification signal when the mobile telephone receives an incoming call; a program that makes the control unit of the mobile telephone respond to the caller by using voice based on the instruction signal received from the radio communication device; and a program that makes the control unit of the mobile telephone establish synchronization of transmitting-receiving operation by making intermittent communication with the radio communication device.
 38. A control program for a mobile telephone that can carry out local and bidirectional communication with a radio communication device, the program comprising: a program that, when the mobile telephone receives an incoming call, makes a control unit of the mobile telephone send an incoming call notification signal to the radio communication device; and a program that, when the mobile telephone receives, from the radio communication device, a message to be sent to the caller and an instruction signal that instructs the mobile telephone to forward the message, makes the control unit of the mobile telephone conduct processing for forwarding the message.
 39. A computer readable storage media that stores a control program for a mobile telephone which can carry out local and bidirectional radio communication with a radio communication device, the control program comprising: a program that, when the mobile telephone receives an incoming call, makes a control unit of the mobile telephone conduct a processing for sending an incoming call notification signal; a program that, based on an instruction signal sent by the radio communication device, makes the control unit of the mobile telephone conduct processing for responding for the incoming call and for responding to the caller by using voice; and a program that makes the control unit of the mobile telephone establish synchronization of transmitting-receiving operation by making intermittent communication with the radio communication device.
 40. A computer readable storage media that stores a control program for a mobile telephone which can carry out local and bidirectional radio communication with a radio communication device, the control program comprising: a program that, when the mobile telephone receives an incoming call, makes a control unit of the mobile telephone conduct a processing for sending an incoming call notification signal; and a program that, when the mobile telephone receives from the radio communication device a message to be sent to the caller and an instruction signal that instructs to forward the message, makes the control unit of the mobile telephone conduct processing for responding to the incoming call and for forwarding the message to be sent to the caller.
 41. A radio communication device comprising: a transmitter-receiver unit that carries out local and bidirectional communication with another radio communication device; a communication state judgement unit that measures and makes a judgement of state of the bidirectional communication; and a notification unit that sends information about the state of the bidirectional communication measured by the communication state judgement unit.
 42. A radio communication device of claim 41, further comprising: a notification requirement judgement unit that, based on the judgement of the state done by the communication state judgement unit, makes a judgement whether or not to tell a user of the radio communication device information about the state of the bidirectional communication; wherein the notification unit, when the notification requirement judgement unit judges the user should be notified, sends information about the state of communication.
 43. A method for controlling a radio communication device, the method comprising: carrying out local and bidirectional radio communication with another radio communication device; judging state of the bidirectional radio communication with the other communication device; and notifying the user of information about the state of the bidirectional radio communication.
 44. A control program comprising: a program that makes a control unit of a radio communication device carry out local and bidirectional radio communication between the radio communication device and a radio communication device; a program that makes the control unit of the radio communication device judge state of bidirectional radio communication; and a program that makes the control unit of the radio communication device notify the user of information about the state of the bidirectional radio communication.
 45. A computer readable storage medium that stores a control program, the control program comprising: a program that makes a control unit of a radio communication device carry out local and bidirectional radio communication between the radio communication device and a radio communication device; a program that makes the control unit of the radio communication device judge state of the bidirectional radio communication; and a program that makes the control unit of the radio communication device notify the user of information about the state of the bidirectional radio communication. 